Donald Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin was “probably” involved in the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic prison last month.
“I don’t know, but perhaps, I mean possibly, I could say probably, I don’t know,” the U.S. Republican presidential candidate rambled in an interview with Fox News, when asked whether Putin bears responsibility for Navalny’s death.
“He’s a young man, so statistically he’d be alive for a long time … so something happened that was unusual,” Trump added.
Navalny, the leading figure in Russia’s beleaguered opposition, died Feb. 16 in a penal colony. The EU and the U.S. directly blamed Russia for Navalny’s death, moving toward imposing new sanctions on the Kremlin.
But Trump, who is dominating the Republican presidential primary and currently leads Democratic incumbent Joe Biden in general election polls across multiple key swing states, has so far maintained a soft line on Putin, who has been waging a full-scale invasion of Ukraine for more than two years now.
Trump has also repeatedly pledged to stop aid to Ukraine and force Kyiv to the negotiating table with Russia — a stance that is fueling anxiety among Western allies who are wary of a second Trump term.
During the interview, Trump said he hopes he won’t have to choose between Putin “swallowing” Ukraine and sending weapons to Kyiv.
“I hope it doesn’t come to that,” he said, claiming again that the war “never would have happened” under his presidency.