Student in Siberian village forced to climb birch tree to access online classes

A Russian university student living in a remote Siberian village has been climbing atop a birch tree in order to obtain internet access for online learning.

Alexei Dudoladov, 21, a student at the Omsk Institute of Water Transport, has documented his struggles on social media and, in a now-viral post, called on authorities to provide better internet service in remote regions.

“I need to go into the forest [328 yards] from the village and climb a birch tree that is [26 feet] high… and I get on Zoom to speak to professors and prove that I am not skipping class for no reason,” he said in the TikTok and Instagram posts.

Dudoladov’s university is over 1,300 miles outside Moscow. Like many other schools in Russia, it moved to remote learning to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Omsk region’s education officials have responded, telling RBC business daily they are preparing a plan for Dudoladov that would enable him to study 170 miles outside the region’s capital.

“I was put on an individual study plan, but do they (authorities) not care about other students from other universities,” Dudoladov wrote in a Monday Instagram post.

“Why can people from the city use the internet in their apartments while villagers can only do so from highways, rooftops and trees!”

With Post wires