Russian Opposition Leader Calls Google And Meta Rewards For Putin For Restricting Ads

Alexei Navalny, leader of the Russian opposition, and opponent of Valdimir Putin. (photo: doc. twitter @markelov_dan)

JAKARTA - Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny protested against Google and Meta Platforms Inc on Thursday, June 9 for closing advertising services in Russia. He said the move had weakened the opposition and was thus a gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Navalny, is by far Russia's most prominent opposition leader. He dares to call Russia under Putin a dystopian country run by thieves and criminals where wrong is perceived as right and the judges are actually representatives of a broken lawless nation.

In a written address at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit, Navalny, who is currently in a Russian prison, said technology is used by the state to catch dissidents but also provides an opportunity to get to the truth.

"The internet gives us the ability to circumvent censorship," Navalny said in his speech, a copy of which was posted on his official blog.

"However, at the same time, Google and Meta, by closing their advertisements in Russia, have deprived the opposition of the opportunity to conduct an anti-war campaign, giving Putin a great gift," he said.

Neither Google nor Meta immediately responded to requests for comment on Navalny's statement. The two companies stopped advertising targeting users in Russia in March, just days after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Navalny has earned the admiration of disparate Russian opposition for voluntarily returning to Russia in 2021 from Germany, where he has been undergoing treatment for what Western laboratory tests have shown to be an attempt to poison him with a nerve gas agent in Siberia.

The Kremlin has repeatedly rejected Navalny's claims about Putin, who is said to have won many elections in Russia since 2000 and remains by far the country's most popular politician. This has dismissed Navalny's claims that Russia poisoned him.

Navalny, the former lawyer who rose to prominence more than a decade ago by railing against Putin's elite and voicing allegations of corruption on a large scale, said Silicon Valley giants today have many questions to answer.

They must decide whether or not they are truly “platform neutral” and whether users in democracies should operate under the same rules as those in repressive societies.

"How should the internet treat government directives, given that Norway and Uganda seem to have slightly different ideas about the role of the internet and democracy?" Navalny said..

"We love technology. We love social networks. We want to live in a free information society. So let's find out how to prevent bad people from using the information society to take their country and all of us into the dark ages," he added.