July 6, 2011 By James Kimer

Inside the Homophobic Mind of a Nashi Organizer

Not to spoil the recent attempts by the Nashi to re-brand itself as a an independent youth movement at this year’s infamous Seliger camp, but it sometimes seems like very few Western audiences are exposed to the actual rhetoric and conversations shared among Nashi members.  One Nashi spokeswoman, Kristina Potupchik (Кристина Потупчик), recently published a rant exploring everything from the death of Osama Bin Laden to the curiously specific and virulent homophobia shared by not just a few other members of the nationalist group.  Do these comments highlight some sort of developing ideology, are they just an aberration, or maybe only the immature ranting of someone seeking attention?  More and more, we are seeing arguments that the movement doesn’t even really matter any more (if that’s the case, you’d think that Surkov would be smart enough to dedicate the budget to other, more successful propaganda activities…).  Read below to see the kind of talent and hate speech Russia is spending its taxpayer money on.

(A hat tip to A Good Treaty for sharing this link on his Twitter stream.  Watch a video of him and Sean Guillory on Al Jazeera’s new crossover show, Stream.)