Late last week Alexei Navalny, one of Vladimir Putin’s fiercest homeland critics, mysteriously died in a Siberian penal colony. Many, including President Joe Biden, put the blame on Putin himself. The cause of death authorities provided wasn’t exactly convincing; they claim he died of “sudden death syndrome.” All the stranger was what happened days later to a social media account belonging to Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya.
Per Reuters, Navalnaya’s Twitter/X account was mysteriously suspended. Some speculated that it was done at the behest of Elon Musk, a free speech advocate with a history of suspending accounts he doesn’t like (while un-banning scores of rabid anti-Semites and other harassing pests). But a few hours later it was back up, with an explanation.
“Our platform’s defence mechanism against manipulation and spam mistakenly flagged @yulia_navalnaya as violating our rules,” Twitter/X said in a statement. “We unsuspended the account as soon as we became aware of the error, and will be updating the defence.”
On Monday Navalnaya posted a video to the social media giant in which she vowed to continue her late husband’s work. “Three days ago, Vladimir Putin killed my husband Alexei Navalny,” she said. “Putin killed the father of my children. Putin took away the most important thing I had. The person who was closest to me and whom I loved most.
“We need to use every opportunity — to fight against the war, against corruption, against injustice,” she continued. “To fight for fair elections and freedom of speech. To fight to take our country back. Russia – free, peaceful, happy – the beautiful Russia of the future, of which my husband dreamed so much.”
Yulia Navalnaya, wife of Alexei Navalny: "We know exactly why Putin killed Alexei three days ago. We will share this with you soon."
Yulia said she will continue fighting for Alexei Navalny's cause and urged other Russians to join her. pic.twitter.com/xymCSiKZrR
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) February 19, 2024
While there’s been much furor over Navalny’s passing, it took a few days for Putin pal Donald Trump to address the matter. When he did, he predictably made it all about him. Putin and his cronies, meanwhile, have been trashing both Trump and the MAGA wing of the GOP.
(Via Reuters)