Republicans Compare Donald Trump to Jailed Putin Critic

Republicans attempted to liken former President Donald Trump's mounting criminal indictments to Alexei Navalny, a longtime critic and political rival of Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Saturday.

Navalny, a Russian politician and activist, had his ongoing jail sentence extended to 19 years on Friday. He had previously been serving a nine-year sentence on charges of parole violation, fraud, and contempt of court, which have been widely dismissed on the world stage as illegitimate and politically motivated. His sentence was extended after a court found him guilty of funding an extremist group, a charge Navalny denied.

An anti-corruption advocate in Russia, Navalny has in the past launched presidential challenges against Putin and has been highly critical of his government. He is currently being held at a high-security penal colony to serve out his sentence.

In response to the news of Navalny's extended sentence, various Republicans attempted to liken the opposition leader's treatment by Putin's government to Trump, who on Thursday was arraigned in a Washington, D.C., court on criminal charges related to his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges. It was the former president's second indictment on federal charges, and his third criminal indictment overall.

Legal scholars have, by and large, assessed the myriad of charges against Trump as legitimate and damning, particularly the more recent federal ones. Despite that, Trump and his supporters have continued to claim that he is innocent and dismiss the investigations against him as politically motivated attempts to hurt his 2024 presidential campaign.

"Incredible. You can't even make this up. Now do Trump," Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, when responding to a post from Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemning Navalny's treatment.

"Putin puts his leading opponent in prison another 19 years, for a total of some 30 years," conservative radio host Mark Levin wrote. "Biden trying to put Trump in prison for the rest of his life."

Another X account, Bad Fox Graphics, dedicated to sharing clips from Fox News it deems questionable, shared an exchange from Fox & Friends Weekend in which host Rachel Campos-Duffy questioned if "Britain, the U.N. [United Nations], [or] the EU [European Union]" would defend Trump as they have Navalny.

Newsweek reached out to the Department of Justice (DOJ) via email for comment.

Responding to an inquiry from Newsweek, State Attorney Dave Aronberg dismissed the comparisons as ridiculous and ironic, given the history of Trump supporters calling for him to jail Hillary Clinton.

"Comparing Trump to Navalny is so ridiculous that I don't believe any serious person would actually say such a thing," Aronberg wrote. "It's ironic that the 'lock her up' crowd are suddenly appalled when it's their own guy facing charges."

These comparisons drew pushback from others on social media, many of whom called the notion absurd. Popular Democrat social media personality Jo responded to a post from Donald Trump Jr., pointing out that his father has in the past campaigned on the promise of jailing his political opponents.

"Setting aside the obvious hypocrisy here since Jr's daddy literally campaigned on putting his political rival in prison, comparing wanna-be despot donald trump to Aleksey Navalny, who was imprisoned for standing up to an actual despot, is absolutely astounding," the post from Saturday morning read.

"I know the right-wing Americans who are criticizing Russia for imprisoning opposition leader Navalny without a fair trial think they're being clever analogizing that to Trump, and sure, that's an absurd distortion, but I'll take them acknowledging something negative about Putin," author and foreign relations expert Nicholas Grossman added in his own post on Friday, highlighting the history of Trump and his supporters speaking highly of Putin.

Updated 08/07/2023, 5:07 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Dave Aronberg.