text: Russia’s consumer rights watchdog is to investigate fidget spinners amid claims on state TV that the gadgets could be used by political opponents to lure children. 
   
   According to the official statement published on Rospotrebnadzor’s website, the investigation was prompted by “concerns expressed by community of parents and teachers” and aims at researching how fidget spinners influence children’s and teenagers’ health and whether they can have any negative effects on it. 
   
   In the meantime, the watchdog advises parents to supervise children playing with fidget spinners and to buy them from sellers they trust. ||||| “In such a manner, our opposition is luring the youth,” Ruslan Ostashko, the editor in chief of a pro-Kremlin website, PolitRussia.ru, told Rossiya 24 in a separate report. “Those who understand political technologies, they understand very clearly that this simple thing is controlling the masses.” 
   
   Russia’s consumer protection agency, Rospotrebnadzor, got into the act on Tuesday, announcing that it would investigate the toys. 
   
   “There has been an aggressive promotion of so-called spinners among children and teenagers in Russia recently,” the agency said in a statement. “Taking into consideration the anxiety among the community of parents and teachers, Rospotrebnadzor, in cooperation with child health research institutions, will study the effect spinners are having on children, including the possible negative impact.” 
   
   Of course, Russia is not alone in harboring concerns about spinners. The hand-held devices have been modified to carry all manner of harmful things, like knives and firecrackers, becoming more weapon than toy. 
   
   In Germany, customs officials confiscated 35 tons of spinners in May. There was no clear indication of who made them, said Christine Strass, a spokeswoman for the customs authority, and they posed a danger to young children, who could swallow small parts like the ball bearings that make the toys spin. 
   
   Although some therapists have said that the spinners help people with attention disorders, various schools in the United States have banned them as a distraction. 
   
   The toy seemed to achieve cult status recently after the comedy show “Saturday Night Live” produced a spoof advertisement for a diamond-encrusted fidget spinner from Cartier. ||||| Not everyone gets fidget spinners. The trendy new toy is meant to ease stress and anxiety but Russian state TV fears it could have more nefarious purposes, namely turning the nation’s youth to vandalism and acts of opposition against Russian leader Vladimir Putin. 
   
   The palm-sized device “makes a person impressionable for manipulation,” news show host Alexey Kazakov said on one of multiple segments broadcast by the state-run Rossiya24 dedicated to the dangers of fidget spinners. 
   
   The toys themselves look innocuous enough, mostly consisting of a bearing center with a three-pronged ring which spins when pushed. They come in different colours and have become a global phenomenon among young people, including young Russians. 
   
   But over the last month, fidget spinners have puzzled Russian pundits, who suspect them to be U.S.-made tools of manipulation for Russia’s opposition. 
   
   Read More: Putin’s mystery companion puzzles Kremlin watchers 
   
   “Probably it is no coincidence that they started selling the spinners at events by the non-systemic opposition,” the host of the programme Virus said on Wednesday. Kazakov explained that according to experts the item could be used as “an object for zombifying” yourself, shutting down critical thinking and experiencing a kind of “hypnosis.” 
   
   Featuring a report from a psychologist named Svetlana Filatova, the program claimed that spinners can help the dexterity of very young children but beyond that, the spinner “dulls” a person’s mind and focusing only on the spinner “takes you to a different world.” 
   
   This was not the channel’s first on air assault against the fidget spinner, as the hazards associated with the device made another evening news broadcast last month. 
   
   Fidget spinners “have frequently been seen in the hands of members of the non-systemic opposition,” Alexey Kazakov said at the time. He noted schoolchildren and college students were using the devices in Russia, where the trend was at its peak, unlike in the West where it was apparently waning. 
   
   “As you can see here there is only writing in English, on the other side there is not a word in Russian,” Nikolay Sokolov, Kazakov’s co-anchor chimed in, brandishing a new fidget spinner. He underlined the lack of medical evidence that the item had many benefits but that the interest in it among scientists “is not big.” 
   
   “Why the spinner has become so popular in Russia now is a mystery,” Sokolov said. “Who could be promoting it en masse?” 
   
   According to Sokolov, fidget spinners were being distributed at opposition leader Alexey Navalny’s last rally on June 12 
   
   Russian independent journalist Alexey Kovalev was among the first to draw attention to the initial bizarre segments on Russian national airwaves, tweeting his response. 
   
   Fidget spinners are used by opposition to pacify followers and distract them from real issues. Because that's what opposition usually does. — Alexey Kovalev (@Alexey__Kovalev) July 12, 2017 
   
   “God! Rossiya24 is running another segment about about the opposition zombifying people with spinners. Basically the Russian opposition is a massive job creator in the country,” he added. “Look at how many bloggers, analysts and TV hosts are hired.”
target: – Fidget spinners are the hot new children's toy this year—but maybe they're also an American plot to topple the Russian government? "Those who understand political technologies, they understand very clearly that this simple thing is controlling the masses," the New York Times quotes the editor in chief of PolitRussia.ru as saying. Multiple reports about the dangers of fidget spinners have been appearing on Russian state-run media in recent weeks. It started with Rossiya 24 claiming opposition politicians were using them to gain the support of young Russians. An opposition leader was seen playing with a fidget spinner in court, and the toys were being sold at an opposition protest, the Telegraph reports. A reporter for Rossiya 24 said fidget spinners make it "easy to divert attention from the real problems." But the fidget spinner phenomena could be even more insidious than that. Commentators on Rossiya 24 said the toys might be an attempt to "zombify people" in Russia and make them open to manipulation. Newsweek reports commentators went on to claim users of fidget spinners could experience a form of "hypnosis." They added that playing with the toy "dulls" the mind and "takes you to a different place." A Rossiya 24 reporter pointed out that the package of a fidget spinner purchased in Moscow bore only English writing. Russia's consumer protection agency is now investigating the toys and encourages parents to supervise children using fidget spinners.