Tech billionaire Elon Musk-owned micro-blogging platform X on Tuesday briefly suspended the account of Yulia Navalnaya, just 24 hours after its creation following the demise of her spouse, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the media has reported. The @Yulia_Navalnaya account page was back online approximately 50 minutes after it was inexplicably suspended, said a report by news agency AFP.
The page contained a link to the platform’s usage guidelines but failed to specify the reason for Yulia Navalnaya’s X account’s suspension.
Navalnaya, previously not considering herself a political figure, declared her commitment to carrying on her late husband’s legacy a day earlier, accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of being responsible for his death in a video message circulated on the Musk-owned social media platform, previously known as Twitter.
According to the guidelines on X, account suspensions can result from various concerns, including safety and privacy issues such as hate speech or the dissemination of private information, as well as authenticity and verification matters like online impersonation. Navalnaya opened the account on Monday. Numerous top aides of Navalny and official accounts also confirmed its authenticity.
On the same day, she shared an impassioned video on the platform, accusing Putin of being responsible for Navalny’s death and urging Russians to unite against the Kremlin.
Just prior to the suspension of the account, she had expressed her outrage towards Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov’s dismissal of her accusations against Putin’s involvement in her husband’s death as “vulgar and unfounded.” Navalnaya defiantly stated that she did not “give a damn.”
Navalny, who has been Putin’s fiercest critic for the past decade, passed away on Friday while serving a 19-year sentence in an Arctic prison colony, which many perceive as retribution for his anti-Kremlin activism.
Putin has not issued any public statements regarding Navalny’s demise.
