Russia’s Strategy of State Mobilization: Lessons from the ‘Nashi’ Movement

This study analyzes the specific mechanisms through which Russia’s State Mobilized Movements (SMMs), illustrated by the case of the Nashi movement, contributed to strengthening the power base of the regime under Vladimir Putin, and explores the broader implications for political science. The findings show that the Putin regime implemented a strategy of legitimation-co-optation through the Nashi movement, seeking to cultivate the younger generation as a resource for sustaining the authoritarian system. This regime-stabilizing strategy initially operated through the mobilization of street politics and subsequently evolved into formal state youth policy, thereby contributing to the consolidation of Russia’s authoritarian system throughout the 2000s. However, in the 2010s, the regime failed to provide sustained and clearly defined material rewards to key activists within the movement, which led to organizational fragmentation and eventual dissolution. As a result, the regime’s strategy of legitimation and co-optation could no longer generate the same stabilizing effects as before. The experience of the Putin regime and the Nashi movement thus suggests that while state-mobilized movements can function as a crucial variable in the consolidation of authoritarian rule, their effectiveness ultimately depends on the regime’s capacity to maintain credible and continuous mechanisms of co-optation.