- President Putin's most prominent critic, Alexei Navalny, commented on US politics in the months before his death.
- In a letter to a friend, Navalny expressed concern about Trump's chances of a second term.
- President Trump briefly mentioned Navalny's death in a Truth Social post on Monday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's dissident and political nemesis Alexei Navalny spent the last years of his life behind bars, but still managed to maintain contact with the outside world.
Navalny's letters from the last months of his life, obtained by The New York Times, show that Navalny, who has been imprisoned since January 2021, has managed to stay abreast of current events, including in the United States. Ta.
In a letter to his friend, photographer Evgeny Feldman, Navalny described former President Donald Trump's agenda for a second term as “absolutely terrifying,” the paper said.
Navalny went on to say that if President Joe Biden had health problems, “Trump would be president,” adding: “Is this obvious irrelevant to the Democratic Party?”
Navalny reiterated his concerns about Trump in a separate letter to Feldman dated December 3, asking his friend to “name one current politician you admire.”
President Trump's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
On December 6, Navalny disappeared from the IK-6 penal colony, 190 miles east of Moscow. He resurfaced on Christmas Day when his lawyers announced they had located him in the IK-3 penal colony, 1,000 miles northeast of Moscow and high above the Arctic Circle.
The Times reported that Navalny's ability to communicate from his new prison had deteriorated significantly.
Journalist Sergei Parhomenko received a letter from Navalny on February 13, a few days before his death was announced. In a letter shared by Parhomenko on Facebook, Navalny talked about books and said that in the new prison he would only be able to read classics.
“Who could have told me that Chekhov was the most depressing Russian writer?” he wrote.
Trump did not mention Navalny in the days after his death, despite accusations from other leaders who directly criticized Putin.
In a post on Truth Social on Monday, President Trump briefly mentioned Navalny before turning his anger on those he perceived as his political opponents, saying, “With the sudden death of Alexei Navalny, I am deeply saddened by the I am becoming more and more aware of what is happening, slowly but steadily as crooked radical left politicians, prosecutors and judges lead us down a path to destruction. progress has been made.”
He did not mention Russia or President Putin.
