Officials moot ‘anti-revolutionary’ university course

Amid the Kremlin's mounting fears of ‘colour revolutions’ – a term favoured by Moscow to describe political protests that toppled Russian-backed administrations in several former Soviet states in recent years – the defence ministry has proposed educating all Russian students on how to combat any such revolts in their own country, writes Anna Dolgov for The Moscow Times.

Izvestia reported recently that the proposal came in response to a request by a Moscow city lawmaker, Kirill Shchitov, who had argued that an “anti-revolutionary” course should be part of military education included in undergraduate programmes in many Russian universities. The defence ministry responded that the initiative should be taken a step further, requiring not only participants in military training courses, but all Russian students, to be drilled in opposing political revolts, the report said.

But a leader of a Russian students' association, Alexei Krapukhin, said the “propaganda” involved in such courses could provoke the opposite of the effect it seeks, Izvestia reported. “I don't think universities should be excessively politicised,” Krapukhin was quoted as saying. “This could cause protests among students.”
Full report on The Moscow Times site