According to a source close to Yakemenko, “Vasily announced that the structure of the Nashi movement is being disbanded and that he says ‘thank you to everyone, you’re all free to go,’ and that something will be formed later but for now nobody knows what it’s going to be.”

Yakemenko allegedly explained his decision as the result of the fact that “the movement was heavily compromised before the elections and there’s no point in continuing it in this form.”

One source said that in Nashi’s place there will be a different organization to be headed by Artur Omarov, former head of the Stal movement. Stal was the group responsible for a controversial display of Russian opposition figures juxtaposed with Nazi symbolism at a Nashi summer camp in 2010.

Sources close to Yakemenko in Russia’s youth affairs agency, Rosmolodezh, told Gazeta.ru that there was talk of either a total freeze on the Nashi project and a cessation of funding or possible restructuring of the movement. The sources agreed that Nashi’s brand image will be cast aside and did not rule out the possibility that a political group based on the movement might be formed.

A public announcement of this decision is expected to be made in about two weeks.

Another source added that Nashi employees are concerned that they may not be paid for pre-electoral projects that have already been completed: “The organization’s equipment might be inherited by Vasily Grigorievich’s [Yakemenko’s – ed.] new organizations, but the organization’s debt won’t be taken up by anyone.”

Gazeta.ru had previously reported that Yakemenko might step down as the head of Rosmolodezh since his influence has drastically fallen with the recent reassignment of Kremlin ideologue Vladislav Surkov.

“The government has decided to use administrative violence,” said Eduard Limonov. “It has descended upon the opposition and, clearly, repressions are going to continue.”

In Limonov’s opinion, the trial and conviction of the oppositionists indicates that the authorities are moving towards becoming a fascist regime. “For the first time in history, five opposition leaders wound up in the same detention center,” he noted. “The authorities wavered, but Putin and Medvedev chose the Belarusian variant.”

Boris Nemtsov agreed with Limonov’s judgment – which is significant, he noted, given that the two hold generally opposing views. “If people with such contradictory views about democracy turn up behind bars, it speaks to a terrible illness in our country,” he said.

Nemtsov also noted that the independent human rights organization Amnesty International had declared him, Ilya Yashin, Konstantin Kosyakin, as well as Limonov and his bodyguard, Kirill Manulin, prisoners of conscience.

At the same time, fellow arrestee Vladimir Tor was not awarded this status. Tor heads the ultranationalist Movement Against Illegal Immigration, known for its propensity to violence. Still, Nemtsov defended him on the basis that he had not received due process: “I don’t think this is right…he was detained for speaking with journalists.”

Members of the pro-Kremlin youth group Young Russia attempted to cause a scene before the press conference began. Fifteen young people approached the building and began passing out discs labeled “The Truth about Strategy 31.” A fight broke out when they were not allowed inside the building, and police soon arrived to arrest those involved.

Young Russia later released a statement on its website accusing Nemtsov’s supporters of staging the attack and breaking one of its member’s fingers.

Pro-Kremlin youth groups have been known to physically attack opposition leaders, particularly Nemtsov. Just days earlier, members of the notorious group Stal attempted to stage a provocation but were scared off by Nemtsov’s numerous supporters.

Nemtsov described the event on his blog:

When I came out, I was glad to be greeted at the detention center entrance by my compatriots – Sasha Ryklin, Ilya Yashin, Sasha Podrabinek, Mikhail Sheyder, Vladimir Milov, Sergei Aleksashenko, Seryosha Davidis, my daughter Zhanna and son Anton. Surkov’s provocators tried to do something, but were frightened by the supportive crowd and quickly scattered off.

Anton, Zhanna and I then set off for a cafe. When we left, I was again despicably attacked from behind with a butterfly net by Surkov’s cockerels. They didn’t catch anything, the poor wretches, but my children were in shock from the sight. After that, Zhanna said that she would definitely be coming with me on January 31 to Triumfalnaya Square, since it is deeply repugnant to live in a country governed by scoundrels.

A group of youth activists attending Seliger 2010, a summer-long camp that was founded as a training ground for the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi but is now run directly by the federal government, erected a row of 13 plastic heads on sticks. Each head has a hats bearing Nazi symbols and a picture of a different Russian public figure, including former Soviet dissident Lyudmila Alexeyeva, musician Yury Shevchuk, and jailed oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

The installation was originally thought to be organized by Nashi itself, but was later found to be the work of a smaller pro-Kremlin youth group called Stal (“Steel”). According to the group’s LiveJournal page, Stal is a “patriotic movement created for the unification of thinkers and prepared for decisive action for the sake of its country, for the sake of Russia, of youth.” They also call themselves “the weaponry of Russia.”

According to Ekho Moskvy radio, Russian Human Rights Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin is deeply enraged by the installation. He said that it would be hard to do more damage to Russia’s reputation and that the organizers should be severely punished.

Russian bloggers immediately pointed out that the installation violates a federal law banning the public demonstration of Nazi symbolism.

Members of the Public Chamber, a federal body meant to foster dialogue between civil society and the government, called for a full boycott of the camp.

“I am deeply outraged that our best human rights advocates and well-known public figures – Lyudmila Alexeyeva, Nikolai Svanidze – are compared to Nazis,” said Alla Gerber, Public Chamber member and president of the Interregional Holocaust Foundation. “The authors of this installation are irresponsible hooligans, absolutely insane people who don’t know what Nazis are.”

Nashi defended Seliger 2010 for allowing different youth movements to express different points of view, Stal’s being no exception. In a statement posted on its website on Wednesday, Nashi said that the camp’s administration “does not subject participants’ statements to censorship, does not participate in the preparation of installations, does not pay for art objects that delegations bring along.”

Lyudmila Alexeyeva told Ekho Moskvy that public figures would do best to ignore such incidents, and thus she does not plan to file suit for slander against the installation’s organizers.

“Things like this don’t offend me,” said Alexeyeva. “And really, if they originate with Nashi, then excuse me, who is there to be offended by – those who make do without any human qualities, decency, or intelligence? Let them amuse themselves in this ugly fashion. Put up a caricature of an old woman who already looks sufficiently morose. If my grandchildren did this, then I would explain to them that good children don’t do this. But here I’m not going to explain anything.”