Russia: Jailed critic Alexei Navalny urges 'information front' against propaganda

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Thursday called on Western tech giants to open an "information front" through advertising campaigns aimed at reaching Russians.

"I urge the President of the United States, Boris Johnson, the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, Mark Zuckerberg… to urgently find a solution to crush Putin's propaganda using publicity opportunities on social media," he wrote on Twitter.

"We need publicity. Lots of publicity," he added.

Criticising recent polls showing that support for Russia's President Vladimir Putin had recently increased, he said he believed that was a "lie".

"The combination of really crazy propaganda... on all channels 24/7, the shutdown, blocking of independent media and websites is slowly doing its job," he wrote.

"The fact is that the majority of Russian citizens have a completely distorted idea of what is happening in Ukraine."

Twitter, Instagram and the majority of independent media have been blocked by Russian authorities since 24 February, the day Moscow's brutal invasion of Ukraine began.

23/31 Nevertheless, I urge @POTUS, @StateDept, @BorisJohnson, @EU_Commission, @JosepBorrellF, @vonderleyen, @finkd, @sundarpichai to urgently find a solution to crush Putin's propaganda using the advertising power of social media.

— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) April 14, 2022