It’s easy to see why Russia’s ultranationalist youth groups have earned comparisons to the Hitler Youth. Masterminded in 2005 by Kremlin ideologist and later Deputy Prime Minister Vladislav Surkov, Nashi (“Ours” in English) soon became the largest among the pro-Putin youth groups. In its heyday, it was some 100,000 members strong. Nashi members attended patriotic summer “training camps,” led massive, mob-like pro-Putin rallies with violent chants and drumming, accused foreign ambassadors of subversive activities, and even “set up an installation that featured the decapitated heads of certain Russian opposition leaders and Western politicians…wearing caps with Nazi symbols.”