Putin's stormtroopers

Julian Strauss writes in today's Telegraph that the Kremlin has organized a youth movement to help it with crowd control during anti-government rallies.

In the eyes of many, the tactics are more reminiscent of the Hitler Youth of pre-war Germany than of the supposed democracy in Russia whose health Mr Putin indignantly defended when he met President George W Bush last week. Andrei Pointkowsky, director of the Centre for Strategic Studies, said: "Putin is behind this. Scared by the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, the Kremlin is trying to form a Putin Jugend to suppress future opposition.

Via K-Lo.