Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny wrote that the prospect of a second Donald Trump administration was “really scary” shortly before he was transferred to the Arctic penal colony, where he died.
Navalny made the comments in a letter, quoted in part by The New York Times, to photographer Evgeny Feldman. The Russian also suggested “Trump will become President” if Joe Biden’s health deteriorates, fretting: “Doesn’t this obvious thing concern the Democrats?”
It is unclear whether Navalny was under the impression the presidency would fall to Trump if Biden is incapacitated — the role would actually fall to Vice President Kamala Harris — or if he were implying another Democrat would perform better against Trump in the upcoming U.S. elections.
In fact, polling suggests Trump would beat Harris by a wider margin than Biden and other Democrat contenders such as California Governor Gavin Newsom and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer by a wider margin than Harris.
Navalny posed as a gay marriage advocate and opponent of the Ukraine war after the Russian government began opening criminal charges against him, but operated well to the right of Biden, Trump, and even Putin earlier in his career.
He advocated Russian ethno-nationalism and backed Putin’s intervention in Georgia in 2008, describing the Georgian people as “rodents,” and once dressed up as a dentist for a video in which he compared immigrants to rotten teeth.
