Twitter has finally suspended what appeared to be the English language version of Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s account. The account had one million followers, had sent over 2000 tweets, and had been created in November of 2012.
“The social networking service said it suspended the account after a report from Russian government officials,” NBC News reports.
The fake account had been reported on as real several times by news outlets. A 2014 Business Insider report detailing a notable Putin tweet linked to what is now the suspended account. And a March Business Insider article about Putin’s Twitter account linked to the same one that now shows as suspended.
The fake account was so successful some Russian experts and others who closely follow politics had noted the suspension, believing it to be a real Putin account.
It is not known who created or operated the account, or why.
A Google cache of the account still exists.
Image, top, screenshot via Google cache