Russian youths told to cool anti-British anger

Published on Thursday 18 January 2007 00:08

HIGH-speed car chases through Moscow's jammed streets may soon be coming to an end for Britain's ambassador to Russia, Anthony Brenton.

For the past six months the representative of the Court of St James has been the No 1 target for the pro-Kremlin youth group, Nashi, which was angered by his decision to meet Kremlin critics on the margins of the G8 summit last summer.

But yesterday Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, told Nashi activists to cool down the protests, which have triggered formal diplomatic protests from London.

Whenever the ambassador moved the Nashi activists were sure to follow, the diplomat has complained. They would stand outside the British embassy with placards, disrupt conferences where he was speaking by shouting abuse or follow him around Moscow, two cars at a time, forcing the ambassador's driver into evasive action on the city's busy boulevards.

Last night, the British embassy in Moscow reacted with relief, at what it hopes will mark the end of the campaign.

"We welcome the message delivered by foreign minister Lavrov to Nashi and we look to the Russian authorities to ensure that there is no repeat of the harassment experienced by our ambassador over recent months," said a spokesman last night.

Although youth movements usually protest against the status quo, Nashi instead set itself up as a staunch supporter of the Kremlin. With financial support from nationalist-oriented businesses in Moscow, its leaders have met Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, who has backed its broad message, if not all of its tactics.

Just before Christmas, more than 60,000 activists dressed up as Santa Clauses and took to Moscow's streets to celebrate Russia's identity, emphasise their endorsement of the government and voice their anger at its critics both among the liberal intelligentsia at home and foreign governments abroad.

Mr Brenton attracted Nashi's ire when, against specific requests from the Kremlin, he met participants of a conference titled "Other Russia" on the margins of the G8 summit in St Petersburg last summer.

The action was deplored by Nashi, which compared the meeting with Kremlin critics such as chess grandmaster-turned-politician Gary Kasparov to a backing of fascism. The long-running protest attempted to win a public apology from the ambassador, equating his conference meeting with an endorsement of terrorism.

In an open letter circulated widely in Moscow, Nashi said: "We wonder what you would say if the Russian ambassador in the UK meets IRA's activists, makes a greeting speech and promises to support them financially in order to make the UK stronger and more independent.

"The answer is clear to everybody."

But after six months of constant harassment, which Nashi has argued is a legitimate protest, the Foreign Office pleaded with its Russian counterpart to "ensure that the ambassador and his family are accorded the normal respect and dignity in line with international obligations".

It remains to be seen if Nashi will respect the request from the Russian foreign minister in word and deed. In his comments yesterday, Mr Lavrov seemed to acknowledge some of the points made by the Foreign Office.

He said he respected the right of Nashi to their legitimate constitutional rights to expression, but went on to state that political actions must be "within the framework of the legal field, including Russia's international obligations ensuing, among other things, from the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations of 1961".

Ironically, the refusal by Nashi to halt the campaign would signal its own independence from the Kremlin.

• FOUNDED in the wake of the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine, where mass movements helped annul elections two years ago, Nashi - which means "Ours" - set out in 2005 to resurrect Russia's days of glory as a global superpower.

But as its website suggests, it is not all about politics, mixing in social activities to broaden the appeal to young people, with echoes of the Komsomol, the Communist youth movement in the old USSR.

Styled as an anti-facist movement, Nashi's use of the term is misleading. Its leader, Vasilii Yakemenko, has in the past claimed that the Russian liberal left party, Yabloko, is fascist.

It is certainly anti-American, with one of its central issues being US influence in former Soviet states.

It is thought the group's harassment of the British ambassador must have been done under the say-so of a senior figure in the Kremlin, but who is unclear.