Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny – one of President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent foes who nearly died last year of suspected poisoning by the state – called Twitter’s decision to ban President Donald Trump permanently on Saturday “an unacceptable act of censorship.”
Navalny, the leader of the opposition Progress Party and a longtime protest organizer calling for the end of Putin’s rule, compared Twitter’s censorship of Trump to Putin’s censorship of himself and noted that “cold-blooded murderers” like Putin and Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro continue to use the platform without restrictions.
After years of advocating for a democratic transition out of former KGB agent Putin’s over-two-decade-long rule, Navalny is now currently in Germany, recovering from what German doctors believe is deliberate exposure to Novichok. Novichok is a chemical weapon almost exclusively used by the Russian government. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied any involvement in Navalny’s illness, which put him in
