Eli Lake, Columnist

Putin’s Opposition Needs U.S. Protection to Thrive Online

How Biden can use America’s technology industry to help protect Navalny and his movement.

June 15, 2021 at 6:30 AM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Don’t let him be erased online too.
Photographer: OLGA MALTSEVA/AFP

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On the eve of President Joe Biden’s summit with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president once again reminded the world why most Western leaders don’t trust a word he says. In an interview with NBC, Putin deployed his familiar arsenal of lies and counter-accusations. The attempted murder of opposition leader Alexey Navalny? Not me. Election meddling in 2016? Fake news. And so on.

Sadly, the world is stuck with Putin for now. There is a way, however, that Biden can leverage one of the U.S.’s greatest assets — Silicon Valley — to help Putin’s opposition.