Ukraine Transforms Lenin Statue Into Wifi-Enabled Darth Vader

Getty Images
Getty Images
Mary Chastain

Residents in Odessa, Ukraine, traded one dark lord for another. A Vladimir Lenin statue has been transformed into an homage to Star Wars villain Darth Vader.

Artist Alexander Milov designed the statue, which is the world’s first statue of the famous Star Wars antagonist.

The factory installed a router into the head, “delivering Wi-Fi to the area around the Sith Lord.”

Translation: A factory made the Lenin statue into Vader. Odessa!

Vader’s home is outside of the Pressmash factory. His arrival was greeted warmly, as the owners and residents near the area had longed for Lenin’s removal.

The statue was scheduled for destruction in accordance to a new law to “decommunize” the country. President Petro Poroshenko signed a law in May “mandating that within six months Soviet monuments – except those relating to World War II – must be dismantled and public places with communist-related names need to be rechristened.”

Ukraine began to shed its connections to the Soviet Union in November 2013 when then-President Viktor Yanukovych, who was backed by Russia, chose a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin over closer ties with Europe. Lenin statues fell repeatedly after parliament ousted Yanukovych in February 2014. However, war still rages on between Ukrainian forces and Russian forces with pro-Russian rebels.

Ukraine has shown love for Darth Vader since the fall of Yanukovych. In October 2014, Darth Alekseyevich Vader, an electrician formerly known as Viktor Shevchenko, attempted to run for Prime Minister. He even toured the country with his running mate Stepan Chewbacca and stromtroopers.

“Here is my face on the passport,” exclaimed Vader. “Where does the law say that I have to take off my mask?”

He was not legally allowed to run without showing his face.

“It’s sad,” he said. “The fact that I did not vote doesn’t mean that my empire will not win.”

Vader heads the Internet Party of Ukraine, which “did not manage to cover the 5 percent threshold” in those elections.

Fast-forward to this October and it appears Poroshenko will have to consider a petition to appoint Darth Vader as Prime Minister of Ukraine after it received more than 25,000 signatures. A man named Master Vladimirovich Yoda submitted the petition.

“We are building a country with the rule of law and the President’s word is sacred to me,” Vader wrote on Facebook. “Thank you to everyone who signed and thanks to the President for the incoming decree.”

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