TULA, October 1 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's opposition Yabloko party called on Thursday a new youth movement an attempt to defuse the frustrations of discontented young voters.
The youth wing of the A Just Russia party came into existence earlier on Thursday at a congress in the city of Tula, some 200 km south of Moscow.
The Young Russian Socialists movement boasts 50,000 members across the country and brings together activists from a number of regional organizations.
"The most important thing is that we have managed to unite young socialist-democrats and socialists," movement head Dmitry Gudkov said. He added that by "socialism" the party meant "justice and democracy," rather than "some kind of Soviet system of queues."
However, the A Just Russia party, headed by Sergei Mironov, speaker of the upper house of parliament, has been dubbed an opposition party in name only and the Yabloko party hit out immediately at its new youth wing.
"We call on all sound-minded young people opposed to the current authorities not to fall for this provocation and to, with all their strength, bring about genuine opposition politics," a statement said.
The statement went on to say that Mironov's party was formed to detract from the appeal of "genuinely alternative politics."
"We will do everything we can to prevent a new Komsomol!" the statement added, a reference to the Soviet-era youth organization.
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