Wi-Fi Name 'Glory to Ukraine' Leads to Imprisonment of Russian University Student

Political Repression Intensifies Ahead of Presidential Election

A Russian university student was reportedly imprisoned after changing the name of his Wi-Fi network to a slogan supporting Ukraine.

On the 10th (local time), the British BBC reported that a student at the prestigious Russian university 'Moscow State University' (MSU) was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison. The Russian court found the student guilty of "publicly displaying symbols of Nazi or extremist organizations."

Russian woman detained while mourning Alexei Navalny
[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

The charge against him was that he changed the name of the university dormitory Wi-Fi network to "Slava Ukraini" (Glory to Ukraine). Local police who discovered the Wi-Fi network name reported it to the authorities, and subsequently searched the dormitory, seizing the PC and Wi-Fi router before arresting him on the 6th.

The Russian court stated that the Wi-Fi network was used to promote the slogan "Glory to Ukraine" to an unspecified number of people within the Wi-Fi signal range. Slava Ukraini is a slogan frequently used by the Ukrainian military, but recently it has also become a popular chant among supporters of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, with the Russian presidential election approaching, political repression is taking place locally. Over 400 people were arrested simply for placing flowers at a memorial site for opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, who died under suspicious circumstances while serving a prison sentence in Siberia last month. The international human rights organization Amnesty reported that 21,000 anti-war activists were targeted last year alone.

Amnesty condemned the Russian authorities for using "unfair trials" to "silence critics with prison sentences and heavy fines for even minimal dissent."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.