Putin Ally Fumes over Trump Indictment

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has suggested that criminal charges against Donald Trump are politically motivated.

Medvedev, who was Russia's head of state between 2008 and 2012 and is now deputy chair of the country's Security Council, weighed on the January 6 indictment against the former U.S. president.

Trump is due to appear in a federal court in Washington, D.C. on Thursday in connection with the Department of Justice investigation into events surrounding the storming of the Capitol.

The former president is facing four charges: conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights.

He has denied wrongdoing and described the indictment as politically motivated.

Now Medvedev, an ally of President Vladimir Putin—whose relationship with Trump has long been the subject of scrutiny—has also suggested the charges are connected to the Republican's bid to return to the White House.

"Before, objectionable U.S. presidential candidates would simply be killed. Now criminal cases are being opened against them and they are being charged. Well, there is progress," Medvedev wrote on Twitter.

Newsweek has contacted the Trump team for comment.

It is not clear which candidates Medvedev was referring to, as many of the replies to his post pointed out.

In 1968 Robert F. Kennedy, a candidate for the Democratic nomination, was shot in an assassination that prompted the Secret Service to protect presidential contenders.

Reporting Medvedev's comments, Russian publication RBC pointed out that four American presidents had been assassinated, the most recent being Robert F. Kennedy's brother, John F. Kennedy, in 1963.

Medvedev uses his Telegram social media channel far more regularly to issue nuclear threats against the West for its support of Ukraine.

Last month he wrote that the tensions between Moscow and the West were "much worse" than during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, which took place under President Kennedy. This made the chances of a nuclear apocalypse "not only possible, but also quite probable."

Medvedev's remarks about Trump follow the Republican's third criminal indictment, but he remains the frontrunner for the GOP nomination. Before his arraignment, Trump denounced the case as proof of the "corruption, scandal, and failure" of the U.S. under President Joe Biden.

Special Counsel Jack Smith, whose office led the Department of Justice investigation into the events leading up to January 6, has accused Trump of "lies" that were "targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the U.S. government," in tallying the results of the 2020 election.

Trump has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that the 2020 election was subject to widespread fraud.