Great for Nashi and shame on the Russian psychiatry community for confining this elderly woman on suspicious grounds. How it is that after all the ugly past of the Soviet misuse of psychiatry that the people can still be confined for being odd or eccentric?Keep up the good work Russia’s political youth, the future belongs to you!

So what if she "stretched" the truth. She was clearly so excited to be at the event, and wanted to tell the story of her adventures to her fellow retirement home folks. It is so important to shine the light on such stories, to protect the people who may be nothing more but eccentric and bit fancifull. Good for the youth to take interest in a fate of an old woman. There is hope!

Since when is it a crime to be a senior citizen who wants to be politically involved, and to want make the world a better place? Here in the United States, I have helped, and befriended, several major politicians. I do it as part of my work as an advocate for health care and social services. Yes, one of my causes is a better life for senior citizens! DON'T TRY TO SILENCE THE OVER 50 GENERATION! WE HAVE A VOICE TOO!

To Sarah: There is a long and time-honoured tradition in Russia to lock up people of dubious political persuasion in mental hospitals. In Soviet times, an untold number of dissidents were thus locked up – and with excellent reason, too. I mean, if one objected to anything pertaining to the workers’ paradise, one had to be mad, didn’t one? Konstantin Päts, the pre-war President of Estonia, suffered such a similar fate. The man believed that the Soviet invasion of his country was contrary to treaty arrangements which Estonia had with Russia, he believed that subsequent sham “elections” that were organised at the point of Soviet guns and that conformed to no provision of the Estonian constitution were illegal, he believed that neither the sham “parliament” that was thus put into place under Red Army coercion, nor any other parliament, had any constitutional right to rescind the country’s sovereignty or apply for “admission” into the glorious Soviet Union. Consequently he believed that he continued to be the rightful President of Estonia, though he was under Soviet imprisonment. Obviously the poor man was mad! Hence he was deported from Estonia and interred in a psychiatric hospital in Tver, where he died in 1956. In the mid 1950s he smuggled a letter out of his hospital prison to the UN, drawing the attention of the world community to the illegal Soviet occupation of Estonia and signing it as the President of the Republic of Estonia. Obviously totally insane. I commend Nashi for its campaign to release people who are detained in Russian mental hospitals for political reasons, but ask, where was Nashi fifty years ago?! The answer is, their fathers and grandfathers were filling the Gulag and other places of imprisonment with people who yearned to breathe free of Soviet oppression.

Marzipan6 Thank you for your comment. I do not know history and circumstances pertaining to how and why Konstantin Päts, the pre-war President of Estonia ended up in the Soviet Gulag. As for the Red Army, it is greatest army with the most glorious history. Have ever bothered to ask yourself that despite the fact more 80% of the Red Army commanders were purged by Stalin, the Red Army was able to remover from both the Stalin’s purge of the initial catastrophic impact of the fascist invasion. The use of psychiatry as instrument of mind control, and disciplinary power is as powerful in the West as in the Soviet Union. As for Nashi, it is hard to take your comment seriously when you pain with such big stroke with this youth moment as the children of KGB. In fact from what little I read of this youth group, they are concerned with their nation and people’s wellbeing and that is a good thing. Now, what is your view of Estonia participation in American war in terror, extraordinary renditions of Arabs and Muslims ?

It would be nice to hear all of the story about "granny Putin". She may have some good things to share with the world. RT needs to tell us the whole story, without trying to be politically correct. If RT is a free press let it show. Give the old lady her spot in the sun.

Sarah, I agree, the Red Army had an absolutely remarkable capacity to absorb suffering and still go on fighting. It’s just a pity (to put it mildly) that their sacrifices and suffering were betrayed by their political masters, who use them not to bring liberty to captive countries, but merely to replace a totalitarian Nazi regime of oppression with a totalitarian Soviet regime of oppression, with freedom not getting a look-in at all. As for how and why Estonia’s pre-war President died in Soviet captivity (as did, I believe, every member of Estonia’s government save one who managed to flee to Sweden), that is very simple. The Red Army invaded and occupied Estonia in 1940 at a time when Estonia was neutral and before Russia was at war with Germany. It arrested Estonia’s government members along with about ten thousand civilians (mostly women and children), and either killed them outright or deported them in cattle wagons to slave labour camps in Siberia, where most died. Or in the case of the Estonian president, to a psychiatric hospital in Russia, where he died. Google “Konstantin Päts”, “Estonia occupation” or “Baltic occupation”, and you’ll find more information about it than you can read in a week. You also ask, “Now, what is your view of Estonia participation in American war on terror, extraordinary renditions of Arabs and Muslims?” I don’t have a view on Estonian participation in the obscenity that is called “extraordinary rendition”, because there is and has been no Estonian participation in this. Also, Estonians participated in neither the invasion of Afghanistan or Iraq, but afterwards Estonian units have been posted in both places, to train locals and to protect them against armed insurgents. Numbers of Estonian soldiers have given their own lives in the course of these duties. Estonia cannot expect countries to come to its assistance in times of need if it does not do what it can to help others in their need.

Marzipan6 First and foremost the Red Army is the greatest and bravest army in the modern history. This is a fact which cannot be refuted with any amount of historical revisionism. I have also noted that you have avoided responding to Estonia’s recent history pertaining to its role in participating in U.S illegal wars of invasion, occupation, extra ordinary renditions and torture. The soldiers who serve under George W. Bush had the misfortune of serving under a warmongering, neocon born again fundamentalist. Are you willing to condemn American soldiers who brought death and destruction to Iraq? I think not. Let me stress this point: the Red Army is a military force which fought with the greatest courage and bravery. You can say whatever you like about Stalin’s crimes but the Red Army won WWII despite Stalin. Eternal Glory to the Red Army