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Thousands of Teens Rally for Putin
Thousands of college students gathered for a rally near the Kremlin on Monday to mark the one-year anniversary of President Vladimir Putin's inauguration.
A crowd of an estimated 11,000 young people from Moscow, Taganrog, Rostov and Yaroslavl, wearing T-shirts with an enigmatically smiling Putin, marched through downtown Moscow to Red Square carrying Russian flags and chanting, "Russia! Russia!"
At the rally, organized by pro-Kremlin youth group Idushchiye Vmeste, or Moving Together, the demonstrators listened to speeches full of praise for Putin and hummed along to the national anthem.
Many said the movement's membership structure and the rah-rah spirit of the gathering reminded them of Soviet-era demonstrations by the Communist party's youth organization, the Komsomol. But some said they didn't mind the similarities.
The rally took place as numerous politicians and analysts issued their generally positive assessments of Putin's first year in office.
Putin himself weighed in on the anniversary, summing up the year as a good one overall.
"We can be happy with the trend, but it is a bit early to be happy with the results," Putin was quoted by Interfax as saying.
Later in the evening, Moving Together leader Vasily Yakimenko said in a telephone interview that Putin received him and other organization members in the Kremlin after the rally.
"At the meeting the president told us that, with people like us, Russia's future is safe," Yakimenko said.
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