Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich is arguing on Twitter against impeaching Donald Trump, because he believes this will undermine President Joe Biden’s attempts to unify the country because it will turn the former president into a martyr, in much the same way that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is being martyred, MarketWatch reports.

“Establishment politicians should think long and hard before turning President Trump into the American equivalent of Alexei Navalny,” he wrote in a Sunday tweet. He was referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s harshest critic, who has spent months in Germany recovering from severe nerve-agent poisoning that he’s blamed the Kremlin for. Russian authorities have denied Navalny’s allegations.

If President Biden really wanted unity rather than surrender he would call on the Senate to drop impeachment. With troops in the capitol, cries for exterminating and “reeducating” Republicans, AOC’s fear of being around Republicans, the divisions grow deeper and more bitter.

— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) January 24, 2021

Navalny wound up being arrested when he returned to Russia from Germany earlier this month, and when thousands of people showed up on Saturday in nationwide demonstrations to protest his arrest, Russian police arrested them too — some 3000 protesters, to be exact. These actions have been condemned by the U.S. State Department for “the use of harsh tactics against protesters and journalists.” The incidents were caught on camera and have served to further strain relations between the U.S. and Russia.

Navalny is a fierce challenger to Putin and faces years in prison and has made anti-corruption a focal point of his political career, and that means that Gingrich’s tweet rang a few bells on Twitter for it’s awkward comparison between Trump who is the king of corruption and a man who is diametrically opposed to it.

Newt, this is offensive. And wrong. Trump is the equivalent of Putin. Not Navalny. https://t.co/3JyKX5i8fj

— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) January 24, 2021

Desperate Newt over here is comparing someone who was poisoned and imprisoned for opposing an authoritarian, to spoiled, corrupt and morally bankrupt rich dude who was willing to commit any offense to stay in power and become a full-fledged authoritarian.https://t.co/IItP7KbD7r

— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) January 24, 2021

At least one Twitter user was reminded of an interview Gingrich did with The Washington Post in 1989. Gingrich was the House Republican Whip at the time and he described GOP efforts to split Americans along party lines on such issues as education in order to win elections.

“Now we have a way of dividing America,” he said at the time.

"Now we have a way of dividing America," Newt Gingrich explained in 1989 while describing the GOP strategy that endures to today. This suggests all the Republican complaints about a lack of "unity" may not be 100% good faith. https://t.co/hB9B5BrtUi pic.twitter.com/iQaPzDV1Ve

— Jon Schwarz (@schwarz) January 21, 2021

Newt Gingrich was probably the most important proto-Trump — exactly the same cynicism, demagoguery and hatefulness. Here Gingrich is today, piously calling for unity, along with what Gingrich explained in 1989 about his actual political strategy. pic.twitter.com/RFKFAvq4h2

— Jon Schwarz (@schwarz) January 21, 2021

Another Twitter also couldn’t resist responding to Gingrich’s tweet.

“It’s true we have an increasingly bitter divide in this country. I’m curious, whose fault do you think that is Newt?”

It's true we have an increasingly bitter divide in this country. I'm curious, whose fault do you think that is, Newt? > pic.twitter.com/cyCe9SI7tx

— Tau (@Tau_Phillips) January 25, 2021

Other Republicans, like Florida’s Sen. Marco Rubio and Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton have cooled off on the idea, with Rubio calling the impeachment “stupid” and “counterproductive.”

Arguments in the Senate impeachment trial will begin Feb. 8.