The young Russians who are training for a nuclear war with the West
In the midst of a forest on the banks of Moscow, dozens of students in uniform fighting are running, shooting each other with air pressure guns.
A weekend trip to play paintball, organized by the government opposition party, it seems harmless. But in Russia everything is not what it seems.
"We offer a wide range of military subjects," says Stepan Zotov, party activist responsible for the event.
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"There is fighting knives, throwing knives. We also work with live ammunition, shooting at targets or sometimes in military camps."
The party Zotov, Rodina ( "Motherland" in Russian), is part of what is known as "loyal opposition", which means supporting the Kremlin.
And their activities are part of a program "of military and patriotic education" supported by the government - and facing students.
Conflict imminent?
When watching Russian television, the impression is that the country is about to enter into military confrontation with the West.
Recently, a state news program aired that the population should locate the nearest bomb shelter of their homes before it was too late - Russia recently held exercises at the national level to prepare for a type attack.
Zotov takes the possibility seriously.
"We are preparing for a confrontation with the West. But most of that confrontation happens in the cultural, informational and values. The Russian civilization is a culture of heroes and warriors," he says.
For him, the collapse of the Soviet Union was a tragedy.
"Our great country was dissolved without armed war because we begin to love a people and a different culture, not ours."
Ukraine
While an open military conflict does not come, the young man says there are other indirect confrontation between Russia and its Western rivals. For example, in eastern Ukraine, where he says he fought as a volunteer alongside separatist forces.
"I, my buddies and some of my cadets participate. It is a conflict between Russia and the West," he says.
Kiev, who in recent years rehearsing walked closer ties with the European Union, accuses Moscow to retaliate this approach fomenting separatism in its border area where cultural influence is Russian.
The culmination of this tension occurred in 2014, when Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula, until then under Ukrainian control.
But none of the students interviewed by the BBC is interested in volunteering to fight in Ukraine. They are teenagers or young 20-somethings and were born after the Soviet period. The discuso television does not seem to convince them.
"You should not watch TV in Russia," says a young woman. "Television handles things. It is a war of information. You should not pay attention to it. They make people anxious for no reason."
When asked about what the concept of the West means the answers are very different from Zotov ideas. "Capitalism," says one. "Opportunity," says another.
"Moreover, the culture is interesting. It's a different culture. Maybe someday there is cooperation, because we all live on the same planet and the war does not make sense," said the teenager.
What you see on Russian television today is either sanctioned or sympathetic to the Kremlin.
The news programs have a number of stories about wars and crises abroad, also speaking of international inconsistencies. The Ukrainian government has been accused of crucifying babies and the BBC, to carry out an attack with chemical weapons in Syria.
To support the political opportunism, a philosophical approach was created. One of its architects is Alexander Dugin, a thinker who is under sanction of the United States for his alleged involvement in the annexation of Crimea to Russia and war in eastern Ukraine.
only Russia
"The truth is a matter of faith," Dugin said in his pro-Kremlin television channel.
"Postmodernism shows that the so-called truth is a matter of faith. So we believe in what we do and what we say. And this is the only way to define the truth. We have our special Russian truth, you must accept. "
The philosophy of Dugin is known as Eurasianism. According to her, the Orthodox Russia is not part of neither the West nor the East, but an isolated and unique civilization that battle for the place it deserves among the world powers.
The work it has become increasingly influential among the political and military elite of Russia.
"If the United States does not want to start a war, you should recognize that they are no longer the only leader. And the situation in Syria and Ukraine, Russia says no, you're not the boss'. This is the question of who rules the world. Only the war could really decide. "
Currently, relations between Russia and the US are the most sensitive time since the collapse of the USSR and the end of the Cold War called in 1991.
The constant tension between the two countries has intensified in recent weeks after the joint offensive of the Syrian and Russian forces in the city of Aleppo in Syria, against the rebels.
US President Barack Obama condemned the offensive and threatened to stop talks about the war, while Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the Americans of the West deteriorate relations with Russia on purpose.
In addition, on 20 September, a UN convoy was hit and the US blamed the attack on Russia, which blamed a terrorist group and accused the United States accuse her unfairly.
At the same time, the US government accused Russia of using hackers to disrupt the presidential elections in the country after emails of staff of the Democratic Party were leaked.
However, according to former CIA officer Paul Pillar, it is only a competition for influence.
"We are not seeing the kind of ideological competition that characterized the Cold War and fortunately now we have no nuclear arms race," he told the BBC.
Russian philosophy
The bellicose ideas of Dugin are not directed only to the West. There is a domestic consumption message too, which is: there are no universal liberal values, there is an inherent contradiction in a democracy and that does not allow dissent.
In the shadow of the Kremlin walls, the increasingly lean group of Russian activists keeps alive the memory of Boris Nemtsov, leaving flowers at the place where the opposition politician was killed last year. It's a cold and lonely work.
"I still believe that truth exists," says Mikhail Shneider, a former Soviet dissident and buddy Nemtsov.
"It is a fact that they killed Boris Nemtsov right here, 10 meters from where we are. It is a fact that Putin in the Kremlin. It is a fact that Putin's TV mind."
Most Russians do not really believe that a nuclear war with the West is about to happen. Maybe not their politicians believe that. They probably do not really believe in the state Orwellian postmodern.
But the more a lie is repeated, the greater the risk of it becoming some kind of reality.
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