Summer sex camp for your kids, anyone?

With an eye on Russia's dismally low birth-rate, a youth movement run by Russian President Vladimir Putin's Kremlin sponsored a "procreation camp" this past summer. Held 200 miles from Moscow, the two-week camp was reportedly attended by 10,000 uniformed youngsters. Following instructions in physical fitness and exercises, couples repaired -- or should we say "paired off" -- to a special part of dormitory tents arranged in the shape of a heart, which was called the "Love Oasis," where they were encouraged to start "procreating for the motherland." The camp culminated in a mass wedding of twenty-five couples, who were ready to make the "ultimate expression of devotion to the motherland" (The Daily Mail, July 29, 2007; quoted by Michael S. Rose in "The News You May Have Missed, New Oxford Review [October 2007], p. 37).

Read more at "Hitl ... I mean Putin’s Youth (Nashi): Sex for the motherland: Russian youths encouraged to procreate at camp," by Edward Lucas (The Postnational Monitor, July 29, 2007).