Generation YouTube

After the March 26 protests across Russia, when many teenagers joined in the nationwide anti-corruption marches instigated by opposition politician Alexei Navalny, the government has been reassessing their “youth policy.”

Both the opposition and the Kremlin seem to have been taken by surprise by the rebellious streak seen in those who have come of age during Putin’s third term – they don’t watch state television, and they are not really part of Putin’s power base. So far, however, the establishment’s attempts to “get” the younger generation have been clumsy or absurd at best.

This is perhaps best illustrated by a gaffe made by lawmaker Sergei Mironov in the State Duma, which held a discussion on youth policy in May.

“This stuff called artrit [arthritis]. The painting of the graffiti. When it was spontaneous, we saw concrete plants [covered in graffiti?] along train tracks, but some cities decided, why not make use of that, and boring, gray neighborhoods blossomed.”

Another lawmaker, Senate Speaker Valentina Matvienko, suggested considering a ban on allowing underage Russians to engage in public protest:

“Minors are not always able to make truly judicious decisions. So perhaps we should adopt a legislative ban on involving children in these sorts of mass actions.”

Banning things has always been the Russian authorities’ knee-jerk reaction to phenomena they cannot directly control. And reports from several Russian provinces suggest that high school students often face problems and even expulsion for participating in opposition activities. But there have also been attempts by (mostly aging) politicians to understand the world of youth cyber culture and to even dive into the video blogging medium that has been so effective for Navalny in rousing protesters.

One of the unlikeliest pro-Kremlin figures to try this approach has been Alisher Usmanov, one of Russia’s wealthiest people, whom Navalny accused of bribing government officials. Appearing before the camera with a notepad and a glass of water, Usmanov made not one but two video addresses to Navalny, boasting, among other things that, “I have more to do with the internet than you: I don’t use it, I develop it.”

Perhaps to further hone their video skills in the battle for young minds, Russia’s State Duma invited a 19-year-old gaming and beauty video blogger, Sasha Spilberg, to testify before a committee hearing. During her testimony, Spilberg (real name Alexandra Balkovskaya) commented that she was not “in favor... of demonstrations just because someone is wearing yellow sneakers,” a reference to Navalny’s viral YouTube video highlighting Kremlin corruption by tracking Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s online sneaker purchases.

Meanwhile, a court in Yekaterinburg convicted video blogger Ruslan Sokolovsky for making videos showing him chasing Pokemons in a cathedral, which supposedly mocked the Orthodox Church. He received a suspended sentence of three and a half years.