The Putintni

With a Vladimir Putin badge pinned to his bright red campaign scarf, Robert Schlegel is preaching a revolution the likes of which Russia has never seen. Things will, he promises, keep going just as they are.

“After 100 years of our country being in total crisis, we at last have a chance to live normally,'' he declared proudly. “Thanks to President Putin, we, the young generation, have prospects like never before.''

In the case of Schlegel, a 23-year-old video production boss, those prospects are well-advanced. He is standing for office in this week's parliamentary elections and could become the Duma's youngest member.

The reason he may beat candidates twice or three times his age is not simply down to the overwhelming dominance of United Russia, the pro-Putin party under whose ticket he is running.

Schlegel is also a leading member of Nashi, the 100,000-strong, Kremlin-backed youth movement set up to promote “Red'' revolution rather than “Orange''.

Viewed warily by some Russians as a cross between the Soviet-era Konsomol and Germany's Hitler Youth, ostensibly Nashi is only a movement to promote “positive role models'' for young Russians, but those who sign up are fed an aggressively patriotic ideology and anti-Western agenda.

Members go on summer camps where they are urged to procreate to increase the size of the Russian race and to undergo military service to deter America from invading.

The group also takes part in noisy—sometimes violent—demonstrations against pro-Western groups.

Last year they were accused of intimidation against the British ambassador, Anthony Brenton, after he attended a conference organised by Other Russia, the anti-Kremlin coalition headed by the former chess champion Garry Kasparov.

For almost five months, Nashi youths picketed the British embassy and Brenton's residence, heckling him at public speeches.

The campaign tailed off only when Brenton, who described it as harassment “bordering on violence'', lodged a complaint with the Kremlin.

Now, though, Nashi's influence is expanding into the corridors of power. It is putting up 15 candidates for parliamentary office.

None is beyond the mid-20s, but all are high on United Russia's party list, making them among the first in line for the share of seats.

The move is being viewed with alarm by opposition groups. They see it as an attempt to create a new political class of pro-Kremlin Putin clones, continuing his increasingly authoritarian style of rule.

Even more alarmingly, that theory is one thing the Putintni, as they are dubbed, agree with. “Yes, we do see ourselves as providing the political elite of the future,'' said Schlegel.

“A lot of the people in government are old or not particularly competent and the idea is to have a professional revolution by young, educated and technologically literate people.''

Nashi denies it has fascist overtones, yet when asked about the group's harassment of the British ambassador, Schlegel makes no attempt to hide his contempt for Western culture.

“He attended a meeting of people Nashi considers enemies of the country,'' he said. “We didn't attack him, we just want him to apologise.''

Schlegel's message that Russians have never had it so good goes down well in Moscow. Voters are enjoying unprecedented prosperity thanks to booming oil prices, with

Putin at the top of its list, United Russia is tipped to win up to 70 per cent of the seats in the polls on Sunday.

The constitution bars Putin from standing for a third term in March's presidential elections. But by nominating a tame successor — and possibly using his party's parliamentary majority to gain the post of prime minister — Putin will effectively remain in charge.