Russian student jailed after naming Wi-Fi router with pro-Ukraine slogan

Emergency Case 18 March, 2024 15:28

A Moscow court has sentenced a Russian university student to 10 days in jail for naming his Wi-Fi router with a pro-Ukrainian slogan, Russian media reported.

The Moscow State University student, identified by RIA as Oleg Tarasov, had changed the name of his WIFI network to “Slava Ukraine,” which translates to “Glory to Ukraine” in English – a nationalistic salute which has become a rallying cry during Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to independent Russian Telegram news channel Ostorozhno Novosti.

The student was found guilty of propaganda and the “public display of Nazi symbols” by the Nikulinsky District Court of Moscow on Thursday, and authorities confiscated his router, state-run RIA reported.

Dissent has been effectively outlawed in Russia since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

More than 260 people are currently serving jail terms in the country for crimes related to taking an anti-war stance, according to Russian human rights group OVD-Info, which has recorded more than 20,000 detentions.

A climate of repression has only been made more apparent in recent weeks, following the death of Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny at a Russian penal colony north of the Arctic Circle in mid-February.

Expressing support for the Russian opposition figure, whose movement authorities outlawed as extremist, can be perilous.

Russian state media largely ignored his death, while hundreds of people were reportedly detained for turning out at makeshift memorials in the largest wave of arrests at political events in the country in two years.

Amid a heavy police presence, thousands of mourners – some who shouted “Putin is a killer” or “no to war” – defied threats of arrest and gathered for Navalny’s funeral in Moscow earlier this month. At least 103 people were detained across 20 Russian cities, OVD-Info reported.

Hundreds of people have been flocking to his grave at the Borisovsky Cemetery in Moscow and laying flowers. Riot police were present, searching and filming the mourners and making them go through metal detectors.

Next week, a tightly-controlled election, in which the country’s only anti-war candidate has been barred from standing, will likely see Putin extend his rule into the 2030s.