Russia’s government issued a terse statement Friday accusing U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration of persecuting political dissidents in response to the criminal conviction on Thursday of his predecessor and top 2024 election rival, Donald Trump.
“If we speak about Trump, the fact that there is simply the elimination, in effect, of political rivals by all possible means, legal and illegal, is obvious,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, according to Reuters. Reports did not indicate if Peskov clarified who, exactly, was behind the “elimination” or if he elaborated on whether Trump’s conviction was a change in the status quo in America.
Russia, under longtime strongman leader Vladimir Putin, has harshly punished political dissent and regularly silences any disagreement with Putin’s policies, from protests opposing the ongoing invasion of Ukraine to calls for free and fair elections. Putin was “reelected” this year in a sham election in which only unpopular handpicked alternatives appeared on the ballot, gifting Putin 87 percent support, according to his regime.
The Putin regime also regularly takes foreigners, including Americans, hostage on vague criminal charges, leveraging their safety for political benefit. Among Russia’s most recent victories in hostage diplomacy is the liberation by Biden of arms dealer “merchant of death” Viktor Bout in exchange for American basketball player Brittney Griner. Another American, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gerschkovich, marked one year in Russian prison on flimsy “espionage” charges in March.
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Former President Trump has been facing months of legal challenges for a variety of alleged infractions, including three separate felony cases nationwide. In New York, he faced charges of allegedly falsifying business records to conceal a crime.
Notably, reports indicated that the jury in the trial had to agree that Trump falsified documents with the “intent of committing or hiding” a crime, but did not have to agree on what that crime was.
On Thursday, the jury found Trump guilty on 34 counts associated with his business records. He is the first president in the history of the United States to be convicted of a crime.
“This was done by the Biden administration in order to hurt an opponent, a political opponent, and I think it’s just a disgrace,” Trump said following the verdict. “This was a rigged decision right from day one, with a conflicted judge who should have never been allowed to try this case, never.”
“We’ll keep fighting. We’ll fight till the end, and we’ll win because our country’s gone to hell,” he continued. “We’re a nation in decline, serious decline. Millions and millions of people pouring into our country right now from prisons and from mental institutions, terrorists, and they’re taking over our country. We have a country that’s in big trouble.”
Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds up a fist as he arrives back at Trump Tower after being convicted in his criminal trial in New York City, on May 30, 2024. (TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump is also expected to comment on the verdict on Friday morning.
The verdict appeared to rally Republicans and conservative allies around the Trump, prompting a wave of millions of dollars in donations to his presidential campaign.
Trump’s tenure as president was marked by a tough policy of harsh sanctions on Russia, including what would have been a lucrative project: the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, then under construction. Trump increased sanctions against Russia for its belligerence against Ukraine and maintained friendly relations with President Volodymyr Zelensky, who took the helm in Kyiv in 2019.
“Who sold the first American weapon to Ukraine? President Trump [sent us] Javelins. Who launched the program of free delivery of the first naval vessels, the Island and Mark VI boats, to Ukraine? Trump,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba praised in January. “Who fought the Nord Stream 2 project and imposed sanctions on the well-known but already forgotten Fortuna ship that laid this pipeline? It was Trump.”
Biden lifted sanctions on the Nord Steam 2 pipeline in June 2021, prompting an irate reaction from Zelensky and preceding by less than a year Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
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The Russian commentary on the trial is part of a wave of global reactions to the situation. Unlike the Kremlin, the Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a comment refusing to comment, but hoping that whatever the outcome of the 2024 presidential election in America, it will benefit the Communist Party.
“I will not comment on the US presidential election or any other US domestic affair,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters on Friday. “We hope that whoever gets elected will be committed to growing sound and stable China-US ties, because it will be in the interest of both countries and both peoples.”
In Hungary, the government offered support to Trump.
“I know President Trump as a man of integrity. While in office, he has always put America’s interests first, earned everyone’s respect, and used it to promote peace,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in a message posted to social media. “Let the American citizens render their verdict in November. Keep fighting, Mr. President.”
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