Enlarge image

Donald Trump with Fox News host Laura Ingraham

Photo: Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA

For the first time, Donald Trump spoke in detail about the death of Alexei Navalny in Russian captivity. The ex-US President constructed alleged parallels to the numerous legal proceedings that he is facing in the USA.

»Navalny is a very sad situation. He's very brave, he was a very brave guy," Trump said on the conservative channel Fox News. Navalny, Trump continued, should not have returned to Russia. After all, he had to expect an arrest there. Trump did not mention Russian President Vladimir Putin, who identified Navalny as a declared opponent and is widely blamed for his death.

Instead, he referred the discussion to himself: "It's terrible, but it also happens in our country." He was charged in four cases, said Trump. "And that only because I went into politics."

Referring to a trial in which he was sentenced to a $355 million fine in New York last week, Trump said: "It's like Navalny." And further: "It's a type of communism, of fascism.”

Alexei Navalny died on Friday in the prison camp with the unofficial name “Arctic Wolf” in the Siberian Arctic region of Yamal. According to prison authorities, the politician, who was weakened by repeated solitary confinement, collapsed during a tour of the icy prison yard and died despite attempts to resuscitate him. Navalny was 47 years old at the time of death. To this day, the authorities have denied his relatives access to his body, despite international protests.

USA puts together new package of sanctions

Unlike Trump, the White House has made up its mind. “We have already imposed sanctions, but we are considering additional sanctions,” President Joe Biden recently said when asked by a reporter in Washington. A few days earlier, Biden had blamed Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin for Navalny's death.

The sanctions package against Russia is due to be announced on Friday. John Kirby, communications director for the National Security Council, said. The package will “hold Russia accountable for what happened to Mr. Navalny” and for its actions in the war of aggression against Ukraine, Kirby said. Details of the sanction measures were not initially known.

jok/Reuters