Discussions over the adverse effects of 5G are not new. For over a decade, alternative media have linked technology to myriad health issues, including immunosuppressive diseases and virus replication, the specifics of which are beyond the scope of this website and the author's knowledge. However, Putin's pledge to dismantle existing 5G super towers shows the hazards of electromagnetic radiation are rooted more in fact than conspiracy.

Unlike the U.S. and the West, Russia did not start erecting towers overnight when the technology, developed by Qualcomm and the mobile ecosystem, became available in 2015. Since then, the telecom companies in the U.S. have built 150,000 towers; by comparison, Russia had only 22, primarily in Moscow.

During the Plandemic, with schools shuttered, mobile providers in the U.S. accelerated construction of towers within a stone's throw of elementary schools nationwide. When schools reopened, students suddenly saw sprawling 5G dishes on the horizon and atop school roofs.

Among the four major mobile operators in Russia—MTS, Megafon, Rostelcom, and Vimpel-Communications Public Joint Stock—only MTS started limited deployment of 5G in 2021, placing towers in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Novosibirsk, Russia's most populous cities, with a single tower 15 meters from an elementary school playground in the outskirts of St. Petersburg.

In April 2023, 16 students experienced severe side effects of what Vladimir Putin has called electromagnetic poisoning. Early symptoms included spontaneous vomiting, dizziness, tinnitus, intolerable headaches, and abdominal inflammation. Later symptoms were gastrointestinal bleeding, cerebral hemorrhaging, and blindness due to the decay of ocular nerves. The affected children were ages 8-12 and had attended school the same semester. Moreover, the sick kids were unvaccinated, so health officials at Russia's Ministry of Health ruled out Covid-19 vaccine side effects. Comprehensive bloodwork and radiological imaging tests ruled out preexisting maladies, foodborne ailments, medications, and biological and chemical agents. By June 6, 2023, 11 of the 16 students had died.