After the death of Russian opposition leader Navalny, Donald Trump initially remained reserved. Now he is speaking out – and comparing Putin's Russia with the USA.
Former US President Donald Trump reacted in an idiosyncratic way to the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and drew a parallel to the USA. The Republican did not express his condolences or criticise Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin – instead, he made an absurd comparison on the Truth Social platform, which he co-founded.
“The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our country,” he wrote. “It is a slow, steady progression, with lying, left-wing radical politicians, prosecutors and judges leading us down a path of destruction.”
Trump had already shared an opinion article over the weekend comparing the way Trump is treated in the US with Putin's treatment of Navalny. Trump wrote the headline of the article above his post: “Biden:Trump::Putin:Navalny”.
Trump was initially conspicuously silent after Navalny's death. His rival Nikki Haley, who, like the 77-year-old, is running for the Republican presidential nomination, had criticized him heavily for this. Trump must answer whether he believes that Putin is responsible for Navalny's death, the 52-year-old demanded on US television. She had previously said: “Either he is on Putin's side and thinks it's cool that Putin killed one of his political opponents, or he thinks it's not such a big deal. Both are worrying. Both are a problem.”
Trump has regularly spoken positively about Putin in the past and also given the impression that he admires the Russian president. A week ago, he made it clear at a campaign event that he would not provide American support to NATO allies with low defense spending in the event of a Russian attack. Haley called the statements “shocking” because they would strengthen Putin. Haley is far behind Trump in party polls.
Trump spent the weekend railing on Truth Social against a ruling in a civil case in New York that ordered him to pay a fine of more than $350 million. The judge found that Trump, his sons and associates had been manipulating the value of the Trump Organization for years in order to obtain cheaper loans and insurance contracts. Read more about this here.
Video | “I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny”
Source: t-online
The Republican is facing four criminal proceedings in the USA, including for his attempts to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election. At the same time, civil proceedings are ongoing. Trump repeatedly speaks of a “political witch hunt”. He regularly calls the USA a “banana republic” because of the legal action against him and continues to spread the lie that he was deprived of victory in the presidential election through fraud.
Unlike Trump, US President Joe Biden was very clear after Navalny's death and blamed Putin for it. Although we do not know exactly what happened, there is no doubt that Navalny's death was a consequence of Putin's actions and those of his criminals, Biden said on Friday in the White House. Putin poisoned Navalny, had him arrested and charged with fabricated crimes and put in solitary confinement. But none of this stopped Navalny from denouncing lies, even in prison. Biden is running for a second term for the Democrats in the presidential election in November.
