RFE/RL has an article about the Russian youth movements. Although it focuses mainly on the youth groups affiliated with the radical National Bolshevik Party and the liberal party Yabloko, it also contains this fascinating overview of the level of support for all of Russia’s political youth groups:
Many analysts correctly argue that the majority of Russian youths are too apolitical, passive, or opportunistic to go out into the streets for the sake of democracy. However, the number of radicals who are willing to do so appears to be on the rise. According to "Komsomolskaya pravda" on 15 March, the Russian branch of Pora has 200 members, but they expect to be able to bring 5,000 people into the streets within six months. The Yabloko youth organization, which is aligned with Pora, has about 1,600 members, while the AKM has about 500. The largest anti-Kremlin youth organization, the NBP, has 12,000 members. In all, the daily concluded, the youth-oriented radical political opposition today numbers about 20,000.
By contrast, the newly created pro-Kremlin Nashi already has 3,000 members and boasts that it can bring 50,000 supporters into the streets, the daily reported. Walking Together claims 100,000 members.
Of the anti-Putin groups, it is the radical NBP which clearly seems to be the largest at the moment. Which begs the question – if push really came to shove in Russia and the NBP turned out to be leading the opposition, would governments and pro-democracy activists outside of Russia feel able to support them?
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I travelled across Russia last Autumn and I came across the NBP, either in the news or handing out information, in a three places – Irkutsk, Yekaterinberg and Moscow.
They seem to be a curious amalgam of communist economics and Nazi nationalist and racial views. Is this a fair assumption?
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