Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty Images/File
View of the Moscow Kremlin. Since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine began three years ago, opposition movements have been effectively outlawed in Russia.
CNN
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A Moscow court has sentenced a Russian university student to 10 days in prison for labeling his Wi-Fi router with a pro-Ukrainian slogan, Russian media reports.
The Moscow State University student, identified by RIA as Oleg Tarasov, had changed the name of his WIFI network to “Slava Ukraine.” It means “Glory to Ukraine” in English and became a nationalist salute during the Russian War. in Ukraine, according to Russia’s independent Telegram news channel Ostrodino Novosti.
The student was found guilty of propaganda and “public display of Nazi symbols” by Moscow’s Nikulinsky District Court on Thursday, and authorities seized his router, state-run RIA reported. .
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, opposition movements have been effectively outlawed in Russia.
According to the Russian human rights group OVD-Info, more than 260 people are currently serving prison terms for crimes related to their anti-war stance, and the number of detainees exceeds 20,000.
The trend of repression has only become more apparent in recent weeks following the death of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in a Russian penal colony north of the Arctic Circle in mid-February.
Expressing support for Russian rebels, which movement authorities have outlawed as extremists, could be dangerous.
Russian state media largely ignored his death, but hundreds of people were reportedly detained for attending the makeshift memorial in the biggest wave of arrests at political events in the country in two years.
Amid heavy police presence, thousands of mourners – some chanting “Putin is a murderer” and “no to war” – defied arrest threats and marched in Moscow earlier this month. The crowd gathered for Navalny’s funeral. At least 103 people were detained in 20 Russian cities, OVD-Info reported.
Hundreds of people gathered to lay flowers at his grave in Moscow’s Borisovsky cemetery. Riot police were dispatched, searching and photographing mourners and forcing them to pass through metal detectors.
A tightly controlled election will be held next week, with the country’s only anti-war candidate barred from running, and Putin’s rule likely to extend into the 2030s.
