#12
BBC Monitoring
Russian youth movement to back Putin for now says
leader
Source: NTV, Moscow, in Russian 1900 gmt 7 Nov 01
The Russian youth movement, Marching Together, is run by young people, is funded by company sponsorship and is not controlled by the presidential administration, according to its leader, Vasiliy Yakemenko. Interviewed live on Russian NTV news, Yakemenko said Marching Together would continue to support Putin and the presidential administration "for as long as they want what we want for Russia". Replying to a Communist Party youth official who complained that young people were turning to extremism because of an "ideology of denial", Yakemenko said Marching Together was not denying history, but only wanted certain facts about the country's past to be saved from oblivion. The following are excerpts from the interview, broadcast on the TV station's "Segodnya" news bulletin on 7 November:
[Presenter Aleksandr Khabarov] Vasiliy Yakemenko, the leader of the all-Russian youth organization, Marching Together, is in the NTV studio. Vasiliy Grigoryevich, so you weren't able to clean the streets in Krasnodar?
[Yakemenko] Good evening.
[Khabarov] Why wasn't Marching Together there today? Why weren't you cleaning up there, while in Moscow and Rostov you were?
[Yakemenko] You know, I am shocked by this peculiar one-sidedness. Your TV station is also guilty. I can inform you that 400 people took part in a clean-up in Krasnodar today, and there is evidence to prove it. That is by way of reply to your first question. This town was on the list of 52 towns announced as locations where clean-ups would take place.
[Khabarov] Fine. Now my next question. How do you manage to organize all these events so cleverly bearing in mind that your charges are very young people, practically adolescents.
No-one pulling the strings
[Yakemenko] Young people they may be, but they're not idiots. The
events we mounted today were long overdue, as was quite rightly noted, and you
have to be blind not to notice that something needs to be changed in our
country.
[Khabarov] No, I'm not asking you whether something needs to be changed in our country or not, but how your organization is managed and by whom.
[Yakemenko] The organization is run by young people called coordinators who are elected by young people just like themselves. There is a coordination centre that manages this organization, and they are not puppeteers by any stretch of the imagination, as you seem to be implying.
[Khabarov] Vasiliy Grigoryevich, who is financing you?
[Yakemenko] You know, there is a huge number of companies.
[Khabarov] Could you name just one actual company?
[Yakemenko] Yes, as many as you like. The Energomash joint-stock company. Russkiy Aktseptnyy Dom. I can name any number of companies.
Backing for Putin
[Khabarov] All right. Whose idea was it to
create your movement. They say that the presidential administration had a hand
in it. Is that true?
[Yakemenko] You know, it's a misconception I have spoke about many times. The presidential administration tried to get involved in the development of this movement only later, while I was working there. I left because I believed the movement's development ought to be more autonomous and more dynamic than it would have been had it been sponsored from there.
[Khabarov] All right, Vasiliy Grigoryevich. Nevertheless, you support the presidential administration and you do it fairly openly, so -
[Yakemenko] There's no problem in that. I think we shall support the president and the presidential administration for as long as they want what we want for Russia.
Denial of history
[Khabarov] Here is a question to Igor
Igoshin. He is chairman of the Russian Federation Communist Party Central
Committee commission on work with youth, and a State Duma deputy. Igor
Nikolayevich, who do you think created the Marching Together movement in Russia.
Why did it emerge?
[Igoshin] Good evening. I believe - and this is our joint view - that one should not discuss and condemn individual movements. It is normal that there should be movements at different sides of the spectrum in society. We say it is important that our history should not be denied. This unfortunately happens nowadays.
[Khabarov] Is Marching Together denying history, or not? What is your view?
[Igoshin] The reports that you showed today demonstrate that there is a denial of history and that not all the conclusions have been drawn from the lessons of the last decade. As for what 7 November signifies today, for the majority of the population, of course - and opinion polls bear this out - it is a holiday in the classical sense of the word. We realize that it is one of the biggest dates in our history, whatever people might say, and, apart from anything else, from the day we were born we have got used to the idea that this day is a holiday for us and we believe it is unethical to take people's holiday away from them.
Emerging extremism
At the same time, unfortunately, an ideology of denial has come to the fore, in
which the younger generation has been brought up, seeing what is going on. If
something doesn't change fundamentally in the near future, it is inevitable that
extremism will emerge among young people, and it is already happening.
[Khabarov] What has to change?
[Igoshin] We must consider first of all that we must not deny our own history. We must not revise it every 10 years and announce that we are rewriting the history books... What we are saying is that if something fundamental doe not change among young people's political organizations - the situation at the moment is simply disastrous - youth extremism will follow. It is already starting. The events of a week ago, at Tsaritsyno metro station, are a graphic illustration. What they showed was -
[Khabarov] Igor Nikolayevich, I can see what you are saying. My last question is to Vasiliy Yakemenko. You have effectively been accused of a certain degree of nihilism. Is that so - do you agree?
Preserving historical facts
[Yakemenko] I don't agree entirely. I
believe no denial of history is taking place, at least as far as Marching
Together is concerned. We only want certain historical
facts relating to our unfortunate Russian destiny and the people who died,
including in the past 70 years, not to be forgotten, and there is no denial
here. History, our history, should not be denied.
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