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#4
BBC Monitoring
Pro-Putin youth in streets to "clean Russia of political rubbish"
Source: TV6, Moscow, in Russian 1200 gmt 7 Nov 01

[Presenter] It seems that everyone in Russia nowadays has his own understanding of today's holiday. For some people it remains the anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, for others it has become the Accord and Reconciliation Day, and for others 7 November is just another day off. One of the ways to celebrate the holiday is shown in a report by our correspondent Olga Zhuravleva.

[Correspondent] Teenagers in special aprons have taken to streets in Moscow to clean Russia of political rubbish. There were promises to take them after the rally to places which need to be cleaned in real.

The Marching Together members moved in close ranks from Zubovskaya Square along Prechistenka Street to the Kropotkinskaya metro station. All this was called the spring-cleaning of Russia. Well-dressed and happy teenagers, who have learnt by heart not only modern slogans but also answers to questions about the meaning of this political action, still did not conceal the reasons for their participation.

[An unidentified boy] For this action, we will be given free cinema tickets, we will be taken to (?Kvazar) [reference unknown] on 24, there will be prizes, as it were.

[Another boy] Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin finds sponsors, as it were, to organize, for instance, cruises for us, or holidays in resorts. We were there a week ago, for instance. We go to swimming pools, we go to gyms, we enrich our inner lives, we go to concerts, all this is absolutely free.

[Correspondent] Today the Marching Together are celebrating not only 7 November. They are celebrating the anniversary of the movement.

[Unidentified boy] A year ago today our organization was started. The organization was set up by Putin. Therefore, we call this day Day of Putin, in short.

[Correspondent] The movmeent's leaders say that their organization is not Komsomol [Young Communist League] but will turn into it of course. The main thing is to keep children away from the street and make them do something useful, like collecting rubbish nationwide.

In Yekaterinburg the most active teenagers also took to the streets with symbolic brooms. It is not yet known whether they moved further than a fancy-dress action.

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