President Vladimir Putin has claimed that the recent conviction of Donald Trump was politically motivated and has “burned away” the idea that the United States is a progressive democracy.
Trump became the first former U.S. head of state to be convicted of a felony last week when a New York jury found him guilty of 34 charges for trying to cover up his sexual relationship with adult film actor Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
“It is clear to the whole world that the prosecution against Mr. Trump, especially on charges based on events that took place many years ago and formulated in a court without any direct evidence, is simply an attempt to use the justice system for an internal political struggle,” Putin said at a press conference on Wednesday.
“Their leadership in the democratic sphere is being completely burned away,” Putin said.
Putin has previously described the four criminal cases against Trump as “political persecution”.
His comments mirrored Trump’s own reaction to the conviction, with the former president having repeatedly slammed the criminal justice system and claimed, without evidence, that the sentence was engineered by Joe Biden.
Former White House Russia expert Fiona Hill warned earlier this week that Putin would likely see Trump’s conviction as an opportunity to weaken America’s global influence and bolster his own standing.
“What evil could he possibly do when there are people within the American system itself who are trying to undermine and destroy it?” Hill, a former senior adviser to three presidents, including Trump, told The Associated Press.
She said Putin would be “rubbing his hands with glee” at Trump’s attacks on the U.S. criminal justice system.
During his 25-year rule, Putin has repeatedly used Russia’s justice system to hand out long prison sentences to crack down on dissent and expand political control, turning a country that once tolerated some dissent into one that is brutally repressive. Russian human rights group OVD-Info estimates that more than 1,000 people are currently incarcerated on politically motivated charges.
Putin said earlier this year that he wanted Biden to win reelection, but many Russia watchers are skeptical that he was trying to use his own notoriety to boost Trump, who has frequently expressed admiration for the Russian leader.
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Asked how this year’s US elections would affect ties with Russia, Putin said, “Fundamentally we don’t care. We will work with any president the American people choose.” He added, “I’ve never had a special connection with Trump.”
Trump and Putin have been at odds on the world stage for nearly a decade amid ongoing warnings of Russian interference in U.S. elections, with Russia accused of meddling in the 2016 election to boost Trump and damage Hillary Clinton’s candidacy.
The special counsel’s 2019 investigation into Russian election interference and ties between Trump and Moscow ended with multiple indictments and extensive evidence of attempts by Trump to interfere, but no evidence of conspiracy.
Last month, Trump boasted that if he won the election, he would immediately free the American journalist Evan Gershkovich, who is being held in Russia. Putin “would do it for me, but not for anyone else,” Trump wrote on his platform, Truth Social, sparking new allegations of collusion. The Kremlin, meanwhile, denied having discussed the matter with Trump.
“There have been no contacts with Donald Trump,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
