China censors the internet. So why doesn't Russia?

MOSCOW : Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the Kremlin-controlled RT television network, recently called on the government to block access to Western social media. She wrote: "Foreign platforms in Russia must be shut down." Her choice of social network for sending that message: Twitter. While the Kremlin fears an open internet shaped by American companies, it just can't quit it. Russia's winter of discontent, waves of nationwide protests set off by the return of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, has been enabled by the country's free and open internet. The state controls the television airwaves, but online Navalny's dramatic arrest upon arrival…