Former President Donald Trump addressed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s sudden death in a Truth Social post on Monday, saying that it has opened his eyes to “what is happening” in the U.S.
Navalny, a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died in a remote Russian prison on Friday after losing consciousness following a walk, according to Russian authorities. Navalny had been sentenced to prison in January 2021 after returning to Moscow from Germany, where he was undergoing treatment for poisoning from a nerve agent that he blamed on the Kremlin.
“The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country,” Trump said in his first public comments on Navalny’s death. “It is a slow, steady progression, with CROOKED, Radical Left Politicians, Prosecutors, and Judges leading us down a path to destruction. Open Borders, Rigged Elections, and Grossly Unfair Courtroom Decisions are DESTROYING AMERICA. WE ARE A NATION IN DECLINE, A FAILING NATION! MAGA2024.”
Trump’s statement — which made no mention of Putin — comes days after U.S. leaders, including President Joe Biden, blamed the Russian leader for Navalny’s death.
“Russian authorities are going to tell their own story. But make no mistake, make no mistake, Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death. Putin is responsible,” Biden said in a Friday press conference. “What has happened to Navalny is yet more proof of Putin’s brutality. No one should be fooled — not in Russia, not at home, not anywhere in the world — Putin does not only target citizens of other countries … He also inflicts terrible crimes of his own people.”
Shortly after Navalny’s imprisonment in 2021, the U.S. determined in March 2021 that the Russian government used a chemical weapon against him. Throughout his time behind bars, Navalny held that his charges and convictions were politically motivated. He also complained in a letter sent in 2021 that his health was worsening in prison, and he was not receiving adequate medical care.
Trump’s comments on Navalny’s death follow Judge Arthur Engoron’s verdict in Trump’s New York civil business fraud trial ordering the former president to pay more than $350 million. Engeron also banned Trump from being able to hold any high-level positions in any company in the state of New York for three years. The civil business fraud trial verdict is on top of four criminal cases against Trump and attempts from states to remove the leading Republican presidential candidate from the ballot.
Trump followed up his statement on Navalny with a post on Truth Social calling for the criminal cases against him to be stopped.
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“ALL POLITICAL PROSECUTIONS OF YOUR FAVORITE PRESIDENT, ME, MUST STOP IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote. “WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF AN ELECTION, PERHAPS THE MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY, AND THESE RADICAL LEFT LUNATIC PROSECUTORS AND JUDGES ARE NOT ALLOWED TO BE DOING THIS. WHY DIDN’T THEY START THREE YEARS AGO??? BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO INTERFERE WITH THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2024, THAT’S WHY!”