Nikki Haley holds Putin responsible for Navalny’s death, questions Donald Trump’s silence

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley questioned former president Donald Trump’s silence over the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

She denounced her 2024 Republican presidential primary opponent for his frequent praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin. In a statement, Haley said that Trump “continues to side with Vladimir Putin—a man who kills his political opponents, holds American journalists hostage, and has never hidden his desire to destroy America”.

“Trump continues to side with Putin over our allies and our military service members,” she stressed. Haley dubbed Putin critic Navalny “a hero”, adding that he died at the hands of the Russian President, and that Trump must “answer to that.”

The former UN ambassador, while speaking to reporters outside her rally at a park in Irmo, South Carolina, applauded Navalny for raising his voice against Putin for corruption and election meddling. She claimed he abandoned his nation only to return “to fight the good fight”, NY Times reported.

“And then he was arrested, and now Putin has done to him what Putin does to all of his opponents — he kills them. And Trump needs to answer to that. Does he think Putin killed him? Does he think Putin was right to kill him? And does he think Navalny was a hero?” she stated.

Addressing a new conference on Saturday, Haley asked Trump, “Why does he always side with dictators?”

Reacting on X (Twitter) after Navalny’s death, she claimed that “Putin did this”. “The same Putin who Donald Trump praises and defends. The same Trump who said: ‘In all fairness to Putin, you’re saying he killed people. I haven’t seen that’.”