Why Trump’s comments about Alexei Navalny are worrying for the US (and what they suggest about his relationship with Putin)

Former President Donald Trump again compared many of the legal and judicial problems to the torture suffered by Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who died under mysterious circumstances last Friday in the custody of Kremlin authorities in a Siberian prison.

During a question-and-answer session before a friendly audience in Greenville, South Carolina, broadcast Tuesday on Fox News, Trump repeated his claims without evidence that the trial against him was politically motivated And said a New York court ruling ordering him to pay $350 million in fines for commercial fraud was a “novel.”

Trump referred to Navalny’s case as “a horrible thing” and added that “it’s happening in our country too,” suggesting that the criminal charges against him are because the United States is “turning into a communist country.”

Russia, since the 1990s, is not a communist country, nor is President Putin, who is seen as a right-wing nationalist.

Despite Trump’s claims, there are few similarities between the situations he faced and those faced by the dead Russian dissident, not only because of the causes, but also because of the stark differences between the jurisdictions where they occur.

These are the most significant differences.

A staunch opponent of Kremlin rule, Navalny was a lawyer who consistently denounced corruption in his country and even organized the largest anti-government protests seen in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union, making him the number one enemy of the Russian president. Vladimir Putin.

Navalny was the victim of several acts of violenceAn attack that left him with 80% of his sight in one eye and an attempted poisoning with Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent under the exclusive control of the Russian government, put him on the brink of death in 2020.

For his part, Trump, a New York City billionaire and television star realityWhose personal life has been in the public eye since the 1980s, rose to American political prominence in 2011 when he falsely accused then-President Barack Obama of not being a US citizen and therefore an illegitimate president.

Despite this, the rule of law and freedom of expression that governs the United States gave him the freedom to contest and win the presidential election in the 2016 general elections, without suffering or fearing any form of state reprisal.

During his political career, Navalny was the subject of several trials, described by international organizations as summary proceedings initiated by the state or by friends of the regime, in which no evidence or guarantees were found against the dead dissident. which provides an independent judicial system.

In February 2016, for example, The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia had violated Navalny’s right to a fair trial in the embezzlement case brought against him. and ordered Putin’s government to reimburse the costs of the trial.

Trump, for his part, who by his own admission has vast resources, has access not only to immunity, but also to the guarantees provided by the rule of law, including access to evidence in his own right. and the ability to appeal decisions, without any restrictions, and the ability to use delaying tactics to try to prevent some of the multiple lawsuits from harming his ability to hold campaign events.

Despite facing four criminal proceedings, two of them before federal justices, in which he has accumulated a total of 91 criminal charges against him, Trump is completely free to aspire to the presidency of the United States and is also the favorite to win the Republican presidential nomination. .

Efforts by some sectors, including his own party, to remove his candidature from the ballot of some states based on the Sedition Clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, are subject to review by the courts and are awaiting the Supreme Court. The decision, as well as the alleged presidential immunity argument by Trump’s lawyers in the federal election interference case.

In stark contrast, Navalny’s bid to run for the presidency of Russia in that country’s 2018 presidential election was met with violence and abusive judicial maneuvers that led to his disqualification based on convictions rejected by the European Court of Human Rights. On that occasion, Navalny was described by The Economist as “the most viable candidate against Putin”.

During the period he was a candidate for the presidency of Russia, Nalvalni was imprisoned by the Russian regime no fewer than four times on various charges of organizing agitation and illegal protests. Putin won those elections with 77.53% of the vote without Navalny’s participation.

Trump’s call congratulating Putin on his victory in those elections sparked controversy in the United States. Then-Arizona Republican Senator John McCain said in a statement that “the American president does not lead the free world by congratulating dictators for winning rigged elections.”

As of press time, unlike most leaders of the democratic world, Trump has not condemned Putin or his regime for the death of Alexei Navalny.