The Kremlin has jumped to Donald Trump’s defence after he was found guilty on 34 counts in his New York hush money trial on Thursday.
The former US president had pleaded not guilty to all the felony charges. He has since called the trial “rigged”.
The historic case accused Trump of falsifying business records to cover up an alleged affair with porn actor Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
Despite the legal result, Russia appears to have sided with the ex-president.
The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday: “We do not like it very much when somebody from the outside world says something about the decision of our courts.
“And we, in turn, try not to comment.”
He later said: “But, in general, if we talk about Trump, there is a de facto elimination of political rivals by all possible legal and illegal means, it is obvious.
“The whole world can see it with the naked eye.”
Russian president Vladimir Putin has himself been accusing of going after his own political opponents, including Alexei Navalny who died in a Russian penal colony earlier this year.
Putin won his fifth term in office earlier in March after an election widely criticised as a sham where voters were coerced into backing him.
This is also not the first time Moscow has defended Trump, while lashing out at the US in general.
Putin has recently declared the criminal cases against the ex-president – he has four in total – as “the persecution of a political rival for political reasons”.
He said in September that the cases against Trump “shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others democracy”.
The two figures do seem to have an unusual relationship.
Earlier this month, Trump claimed that, upon re-election, Putin would help secure him the release of a US journalist from Russian prison due to their special bond.
The Kremlin replied just by saying there was “naturally” no contact between the two.
Putin once claimed he would prefer Joe Biden to win a second term in office over Trump because he is “more experienced” and “predictable”.
The comment came as a great surprise to pundits, because a Trump victory would likely be easier for his own administration.