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Former US President Trump, who wants to be re-elected, remains silent about the death of Putin's opponent Navalny.
Criticism comes from his party.
Washington DC - Former US President Donald Trump sparked concern among allies earlier this month by saying he would encourage Russia to invade a NATO country that does not spend enough on defense. On the death of Alexei Navalny , Vladimir Putin's strongest political opponent, Trump has not yet commented.
The front-runner for the GOP presidential primary has made several public appearances since Russia announced Navalny's death in a distant Arctic prison on Friday.
He has not commented on the dissident's shocking death, although he often speaks about what he would do as president if faced with Russia, Putin and the war in Ukraine.
Navalny embodied resistance to Putin's regime more than any other Russian opposition figure, and his death in a prison camp at the age of 47 was seen as a turning point, signaling that dissent would no longer be tolerated in Russia as Putin became a highly centralized, deeply repressive totalitarian regime.
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Navalny's death: Trump obviously ignores Putin's opponent
A few days before Navalny's death - the cause of which the Russian government has not yet clarified - Trump, who has often praised Putin, told a crowd of supporters in South Carolina that he would encourage Russia to work with any NATO member state that he believes agrees with him Share in the alliance does not pay, to do “whatever you want”.
The remarks sparked controversy in the United States and Europe, as American leaders vowed to continue to advocate for NATO allies, while European leaders expressed concern that a second Trump Presidency could undermine the alliance.
As the
Washington Post
reported on Friday, Trump apparently did not mention Navalny's name once during his four years in office.
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“On Putin’s side”: Trump finds himself caught in the crossfire after Navalny’s death
Mourners laid flowers in front of the Russian Consulate on East 91st in Manhattan for former Russian opposition leader Alexei Anatolyevich Navalny, who died on February 16, 2024.
© Andrea Renault/Imago
Trump doubts Russia's complicity in Navalny's death
After the Russian dissident was poisoned with a banned nerve agent in August 2020, Trump was asked as president how he would respond.
He spoke of how tough he supposedly was against Russia and noted that there was no evidence of Russia's involvement in Navalny's poisoning.
Navalny, the US State Department and European authorities have blamed Russian security forces for the poison attack.
Trump never condemned the poison attack, even after Navalny urged him to do so.
And now Trump's silence on Navalny's death stands in stark contrast to the harsh criticism of other American politicians.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a rally in Waterford Township, Michigan, on Saturday.
© Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post
Biden sees the Navalny case as “proof of Putin’s brutality”
US President Joe Biden said on Friday in the Roosevelt Room of the White House that Putin was responsible for Navalny's death. “What happened to Navalny is further evidence of Putin's brutality.
Nobody should be fooled,” Biden said.
In a statement Saturday, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Trump's remaining challenger in the GOP presidential primary, stressed that Trump had not mentioned Navalny or Putin, and she questioned whether the former president believed Putin was responsible for Navalny's death be responsible.
Speaking to
ABC News
on Sunday morning, Haley called Navalny a hero and said it was important to "stand with the Russian people who believe that Navalny really spoke for them." Navalny, she said, "fought against corruption.
He fought what Putin was doing.”
“And what did Putin do?
He killed him, just like he does all his political opponents,” Haley said.
“We must remind the American people that Vladimir Putin is not our friend,” Haley added.
"To hear Donald Trump say in South Carolina a week ago that he would encourage Putin to invade our allies if they didn't do their part is shocking, because all he did in that one moment was, to strengthen Putin.
A spokesman for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump accuses Biden of “misery and destruction” ahead of the 2024 US election
The former president's campaign previously pointed to a post Trump made on his social media site
Truth Social
as his official response to Navalny's death.
The article does not mention Putin, Navalny or the Ukraine-Russia war;
instead, Biden is baselessly blamed for an increase in “misery, destruction and death” in the world.
The comment is also hidden among more than 20 posts by Trump on other topics, including the US border, Haley, the numerous criminal investigations against him and the election polls.
Trump remains silent about Navalny's death - accusations against the ex-president
Trump's silence on Navalny should be a warning about the type of presidency Trump would lead if re-elected, warned former congresswoman Liz Cheney.
"If you consider that Donald Trump, for example, promises retaliation, what Vladimir Putin did to Navalny shows what retaliation looks like in a country where the leader is not subject to the rule of law," Cheney said on CNN
on
Sunday
“State of the Union.”
“And I think that we have to take Donald Trump very seriously.
We need to take seriously the extent to which we now have a Putin wing in the Republican Party.”
About the author
Mariana Alfaro
is a reporter for The Washington Post's political news team.
The native of El Salvador has been working for the post office since 2019.
Previously, Mariana interned at The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Insider, and The Texas Tribune.
We are currently testing machine translations. This article was automatically translated from English into German.
This article was first published in English on February 18, 2024 at the “Washingtonpost.com” - as part of a cooperation, it is now also available in translation to readers of the IPPEN.MEDIA portals.