BBC NEWS | Business | Fighting for free speech in Russia


"These are members of the nationwide Nashi youth movement. They call themselves "anti-fascist", but "Nashi" means "ours".

And with their patriotic slogans, and slightly militant style, they remind me of the Komsomol, the young Communists of the Soviet era.

These are President Putin's foot-soldiers, a Kremlin-backed youth movement dedicated to making Russia a better place - and ready to counter any attempt to organise an Orange-style revolution.

But there is also what looks like a darker side to their activities.

In Moscow, they have organised pickets to harass both the British ambassador - for attending an unofficial human rights seminar - and the Estonian embassy - after Estonia dismantled a Soviet war memorial.