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.”