CROSSROADS Series: "Putin's Kiss"

Nashi is an increasingly popular political youth organization with direct ties to The Kremlin. Officially, its goal is to support the current political system by creating a future elite among the brightest and most loyal Russian teenagers. But their agenda is also to keep the political opposition from spreading their views among the Russians. We meet 19-year-old Marsha, a Nashi commissar and spokesperson. Marsha is a middle class girl and her family lives, like any other average Russian, in a small flat in the province. Marsha, a young and ambitious girl, seduced by the energy of the movement, the future prospects and opportunities that this organization would be able to provide, joined the Nashi at the age of 15. In almost no time she progressed to the very top of the organization, becoming the protégé of Russia's Minister of Youth. Marsha belongs to the educated, well-mannered and well-spoken part of Nashi. But according to the opposition, Nashi also has a radical wing that is secretly responsible for threats and violent attacks against anyone who doesn’t agree with Putin. She meets people with other political views including the journalist Oleg Khasin with whom she debates on television. And then the unexpected happens. Although they passionately disagree, Marsha and Oleg become close friends. Marsha’s new acquaintances soon get her in trouble with Nashi and when “unknown perpetrators” attack Oleg Kashin, she realizes that she has to make a stand.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Colonel Ingram is a lecturer in political science and foreign policy at UNH, teaching courses on the Russian political system and U.S. foreign policy. He served for 30 years in the U.S. Army, including NATO tours in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

He is graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and received a Ph.D from the JFK School of Government at Harvard University.