Putin's little troopers
They are young kids — between 14 and 17 years old. Most of them are still at school, some first year students at university. Russian President Putin is their hero and the organisation they belong to is called "Walking Together". They usually appear in a noisy, well-organised group in some public place. They are easy to recognise — each wears a T-shirt with the picture of Putin on it. Their leader is a Mr Yakimenko and the group has close ties with Vladimir Putin's Unity Party. The members of the group may not be aware of that, but Mr Yakimenko had once said that the purpose of Walking Together was to cleanse Russia of communist ideas. Within this context it was not really surprising to learn about the latest campaign launched by the group. Mr Yakimenko has decided that culture needs his attention, literature in particular. According to Mr Yakimenko, there are two kinds of literature: "harmful" to Russians and "useful" to Russians. He proposed a book exchange: "bad" books for "good" books. Mr Yakimenko proposed to collect books by three authors he deems "bad" for Russia and send them back to the authors. In return, they will be give books by a popular writer Vasiliev. Vasiliev, the author of well-known books such as And the Dawns are Quiet Here was not impressed at all, suggesting that people should be able to decide for themselves what books they want to read. The organisers of this book exchange campaign didn't even bother to inform Vasiliev about their little scheme in advance. One of the "baddies" is a contemporary writer, Mr Pelevin whose books describe the shenanigans in the corridors of power. "We feel that certain authors are harmful to the Russian spirit", explained Mr Yakimenko, the self-appointed guardian of Russian spiritual values. It appears that Mr Pelevin was used as a bit of a smokescreen for another author who is "harmful to the Russian spirit". And that is none other than Karl Marx. "In the old days everyone was supposed to live according to the percepts of Karl Marx", stated Mr Yakimenko. Now, of course in the Russian cultural and political landscape such people have no place, according to the Walking Together movement. Poor Marx. Born in Trier back in 1818 he still seems to be too dangerous for some. There was an absolutely hilarious moment at a press conference in Moscow when Mr Yakimenko was outlining his revolutionary plan to get rid Russia of all those unwanted books. When asked how he was supposed to send Marx's books to Marx (after all the man died in 1883), Mr Yakimenko promptly answered that all his books will be sent to the place of his birth — the city of Karl-Marx-Stadt! Ignorance may be regarded as bliss by some. When laughter died, serious questions still remained unanswered: Was it Putin who had advised on the campaign? Does it mean that the ground is being prepared for strict rules on freedom of speech? Strangely enough, nobody at the press conference asked the most obvious question: Is it another anti-communist campaign? Be as it may, it is a dangerous and politically motivated dirty campaign. Several days later Putin's press secretary was asked to elaborate on another campaign that is supposed to teach Russian people patriotism. The aim of the campaign is to stress the importance of the country's official symbols and emblems: the anthem, the coat of arms and the flag. The government feels that not enough respect is paid to the state's symbols. The anthem problem was solved some time ago, when the old Soviet anthem tune was re-introduced (without the words yet). he coat of arms is a bit of a problem as the disrespectful Russians still call that two-headed, former tzarist eagle a Chernobyl eagle (as in mutated). The flag is tri-colour and there is confusion as to what the colours should be. The press secretary was adamant that the state symbols' campaign is very important and, in his words "maybe Russians will learn to be more patriotic and laugh less at Americans for their display of patriotism". Fat chance, Mr Press Secretary!