Former US President Donald Trump on Monday finally reacted to the death of Alexei Navalny, three days after the passing of the Russian opposition figure was first reported, but notably failed to mention Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In a post of his Truth Social platform, Trump said Navalny’s death in a Russian penal colony near the Arctic Circle somehow illustrates what he described as “America’s path to destruction.”
“The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country,” Trump wrote. “It is a slow, steady progression, with CROOKED, Radical Left Politicians, Prosecutors, and Judges leading us down a path to destruction.”
Trump made no reference to Putin, who Navalny’s allies have accused of orchestrating his death.
Nikki Haley, Trump’s main rival in the Republican presidential primary, on Sunday told a Fox News town hall that the former president “needs to answer whether he thinks Putin is responsible for Navalny.”
During the same event, Haley also called out Trump’s approach to Putin.
“Every time he was in the same room with him, he got weak in the knees,” she said.
Navalny died on Friday after he lost consciousness after feeling unwell during a walk, the Federal Prison Servi announced. While emergency services tended to him, they failed to revive him, they added.
Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny’s widow, on Monday said Putin was behind the death of her husband, and called out Russian authorities for blocking her mother-in-law from entering the morgue where Navalny’s body is allegedly being held.
Meanwhile, right-wing Republicans are comparing Navalny’s death to the legal challenges facing Trump.
“As the world reflects on the murder of Alexei Navalny at the hands of Putin, it’s worth remembering that Democrats are actively doing Biden’s bidding as they also try to imprison his chief political opponent, Donald Trump, remove him from the ballot, and ensure he dies in prison,” Rep. Lee Zeldin (Republican, New York) wrote.
Trump has been criminally indicted four times, including for his effort to overturn the 2020 election.