Google is caught in a censorship battle between Putin and his biggest domestic foe

Greg Sandoval/Business Insider

• Google is at the center of a high-profile battle in Russian politics, fought between the Kremlin and jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
• Navalny, who was banned from challenging Vladimir Putin in this year's presidential election, had a number of YouTube ad campaigns removed from the site over the weekend.
• The Russian government had demanded Google take them down, claiming they violate a Russian ban on campaigning in the 24 hours before an election.
• Navalny's team say that Russia was wrong to demand the take-down, as the elections were for local mayor positions and not the same as the issues the videos addressed.
• Whatever it did, Google would have been accused of misconduct by the other side. Navalny's team say this is the first time Google has sided with the Kremlin over them.

Google is caught in the middle of a bitter dispute between Vladimir Putin's government and his best-known domestic critic in Russia, triggered by the tech giant pulling an ad campaign from YouTube.

Google removed a series of ads promoted by Navalny's campaign (Navalny himself is in prison) which encouraged people to take to the streets on Sunday to protest a controversial increase in Russia' retirement age.

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