Russia’s International Youth Festival reportedly drew representatives from 191 countries. Foreign attendees got unrestricted internet access. Russian attendees did not.

The International Youth Festival has wrapped up in Yekaterinburg after running from September 11 to 17. Rosmolodezh, the festival’s organizer, had said 10,000 people would attend: 5,000 from Russia and another 5,000 from other countries. Representatives from 191 countries reportedly took part — nearly the entire world. The United Nations has 193 member states.

The festival featured: Dima Bilan, Vanya Dmitrienko, Egor Kreed, and Zveri, as well as Natalia Oreiro and Steven Seagal — foreign celebrities with Russian passports. There were also exhibitions about restored churches in the Donbas and neo-Nazism in the 21st century. And dancing in kokoshniks. And a five-meter-long kulebyaka. And merchandise bearing quotes from Putin.

But the festival’s biggest surprise was that Russian and foreign attendees received different levels of internet access. Three Wi-Fi networks were available at Yekaterinburg Expo, where the festival was held: a restricted network for Russians, an unrestricted network for foreigners, and a separate network for speakers and organizers whose settings are unknown. Attendees could connect using the personal number on their badge, and the system automatically barred Russian participants from joining the unrestricted network for foreigners.

Foreigners also received SIM cards that provided access to blocked services, apparently so they could use the internet without restrictions both at the festival venue and elsewhere. “The SIM cards issued to foreign delegates do indeed allow them to access the services they normally use abroad,” the festival hotline told Agentstvo.

Related reading

A drone factory in Russia is running ads featuring teens who say they earn thousands assembling Shahed drones

6 months ago

Sergey Kiriyenko, first deputy chief of staff of Russia’s Presidential Administration, said foreign guests received unrestricted internet access so they could promote the festival to audiences in other countries. “It’s good when Russians talk about Russia. But there’s much more trust when people in those countries hear about Russia from their own peers. That changes the attitudes of the friends they share it with and their followers,” he said.

What could the foreign guests tell their friends and followers? For example, that a war between Russia and Europe would be very short. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said as much at the festival: “We have said more than once that we have no intention of attacking Europe. But if Europe, which talks every day about preparing for war against Russia, attacks Russia, that will be an entirely different war, and it will be very short.”

Or that Alabuga Polytech is an excellent educational project. Maxim Oreshkin, deputy chief of staff of the Presidential Administration, said it was. The college in Tatarstan became known for having students assemble Iranian Shahed-type drones, which Russia uses to attack Ukraine. According to an investigation by the outlet Protokol, Alabuga students struggled to balance work and study, worked overtime without extra pay, and feared refusing to assemble drones because they feared being expelled and having to pay compensation to the college.