On Putin's side?

Trump’s silence on Navalny’s death meets with criticism

Former US President Donald Trump has so far remained silent on the death of Alexei Navalny(Bild: AFP)

Republican US presidential candidate Nikki Haley has sharply criticized her party rival Donald Trump for his lack of reaction to the death of Russian Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. "Either he's on Putin's side and thinks it's cool that Putin murdered one of his political opponents, or he just doesn't think it's that important," Haley told ABC television on Sunday. Both would be "worrying" and problematic.

Navalny, a prominent opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died suddenly on Friday in a prison camp in the Arctic Circle at the age of 47. Numerous Western politicians blame the Russian leadership and Putin himself for the death of his prominent opponent, including US President Joe Biden.

Trump: no public word on Navalny's death
Trump, on the other hand, has not said a word about Navalny's death in several public appearances since Friday. When asked for comment, his campaign team merely referred to a post on his online service Truth Social, which stated that the USA was "no longer respected because we have an incompetent president who is weak and doesn't understand what the world thinks". Navalny was not mentioned in the post, nor were Russia or Putin.

A week earlier, Trump had said during a campaign appearance that he would not come to the aid of NATO members in the event of a Russian attack if their defense spending was below NATO targets. Instead, he would encourage Russia to "do whatever it wants to them". The statement caused international outrage.

He sided with a guy who kills his political opponents.

Die republikanische US-Präsidentschaftsbewerberin Nikki Haley über Donald Trump

"All he did in that moment was strengthen Putin," criticized Haley, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, who, like Trump, is running for the US Republican presidential nomination.

Republican US presidential candidate Nikki Haley sharply criticizes Donald Trump(Bild: The Associated Press)

"He's sided with a guy who kills his political opponents, he's sided with a guy who arrests American journalists and holds them hostage, and he's sided with a guy who wants to make one thing clear to the Russian people: 'Don't challenge me in the next election or the same thing will happen to you'."