They have been the Kremlin’s shock troops, supporting Vladimir Putin and guarding against a pro-democracy revolution in Russia. Now the activists of Nashi (Ours) may have come to the end of their usefulness.

The youth movement deployed on the streets to intimidate opponents looks set to be broken up once Dmitri Medvedev has succeeded Mr Putin in the presidential election on March 2. The newspaper Kommersant quoted Kremlin sources as saying that Nashi would no longer be used in political rallies and that it would be dissolved and the membership divided into social projects.

A Nashi spokeswoman denied that it was being wound up but Sergei Markov, one of the ideologues behind the movement, said that it was an “expected development”. Dr Markov told The Times: “Nashi was formed to block the possibility of an Orange revolution in Russia during elections. The parliamentary elections passed quietly, partly because Nashi existed, and the presidential elections are developing quite well. There is no possibility of an Orange revolution and in these conditions the Nashi movement is losing its main mission.”

Nashi was set up in 2005 after mass street protests swept pro-Western leaders to power in Georgia’s Rose Revolution in 2003 and Ukraine’s Orange Revolution in 2004. Student groups played a big role in both upheavals and a fearful Kremlin calculated that it needed a youth movement to support Mr Putin. Members, aged 14 to 25, study the Nashi manifesto, which is riddled with references to foreign attempts to take control of Russia. More than 10,000 people attended Nashi’s summer camp in July for two weeks of indoctrination to prepare them for this year’s elections, and activists have harassed anti-Putin parties and candidates. Sir Anthony Brenton, the British Ambassador in Moscow, was hounded after he attended an opposition conference. Nashi resumed hostilities last month during the conflict over the British Council.

It is expected to dissolve most of its regional organisations after the election. Members will be told to join groups set up by Nashi that focus on issues such as bullying in the army or support for the Orthodox Church. “These new projects will be a little less ideological,” Dr Markov, an academic with ties to the Kremlin, said.

About 300 Nashi activists in Soviet military uniforms picketed the European Commission office in Moscow yesterday to protest at what they say is a blacklist of members who are barred from obtaining Schengen visas.

Nashi prospered as Mr Putin adopted an aggressive tone towards the West. Some analysts said that it had become a political embarrassment now that the Kremlin was presenting Mr Medvedev as a moderate. Mr Medvedev, the First Deputy Prime Minister, has been assured of victory since Mr Putin named him as his preferred successor. His campaign said yesterday that he would not participate in live debates with other candidates, preventing voters from seeing any questioning of Mr Medvedev.

The absence of any electoral contest prompted Mikhail Gorbachev, the former Soviet leader, to say: “Something is going wrong with our elections, and our electoral system needs a major adjustment.”

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