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Opposition youth activist Ilya Yashin called a news conference on Tuesday to present incriminating testimony from an activist with the pro-Kremlin Nashi youth group about how he had infiltrated the opposition.
But instead of talking about his snooping on opposition activists, the Nashi activist stunned Yashin and 20 journalists who turned up by playing video recordings that he said showed opposition activists having sex with minors and taking illegal drugs.
"At present, the ranks of the opposition are characterized by drinking, hooliganism and the seduction of minors," said Mikhail Volkhonsky, a Nashi activist from Yaroslavl.
Yashin called Volkhonsky's remarks "yet another provocation" against the opposition and left the news conference.
Earlier, Yashin, the former head of Yabloko Youth, said Volkhonsky had told him about how he spied on opposition activists for the Kremlin.
Volkhonsky then dismissed Yashin's claims. He said one video recording showed a Yabloko Youth activist having sex with a 14-year-old girl and another showed St. Petersburg members of Red Youth Vanguard snorting cocaine.
Allegations about Nashi activists infiltrating the ranks of opposition groups have been flying in recent weeks.
Anna Bukovskaya, a former Nashi activist from St. Petersburg who said earlier this month that she had spied on opposition activists for the Kremlin, said Tuesday that Volkhonsky was among the Kremlin spies.
"Lately, [the spies] have been given the task of making provocations against the opposition that are seen by as many journalists as possible," she told The Moscow Times.
The deputy head of Nashi's branch in Yaroslavl, Anna Galkina, confirmed that Volkhonsky was a local activist.
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