Haley calls Navalny a “hero” and says Trump must answer for his death

Nikki Haley on Saturday called Aleksei A. Navalny, the outspoken Russian opposition leader, “a hero” and increased pressure on former President Donald J. Trump to respond to the news of his death. She said Mr. Navalny had died at the hands of President Vladimir V. Putin and that Mr. Trump “had to answer for that.”

Speaking to reporters outside her meeting in a park in Irmo, S.C., Ms. Haley praised Mr. Navalny for indicting Mr. Putin on corruption and election-fixing charges. She said he fled his country only to return “to fight the good fight.”

“And then he was arrested, and now Putin has done to him what Putin does to all his opponents — he is killing them,” she said, before turning to Mr. Trump, her rival in the Republican Party primaries. “And Trump has to answer that. Does he think Putin killed him? Does he think Putin was right to kill him? And does he think Navalny was a hero?

Ms. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, has drawn on her foreign policy experience and has long criticized her former boss for what she has described as his love of dictators and authoritarians leaders. She has only continued to ramp up criticism of him as they head into a primary showdown in her home state on February 24.

Mr. Trump has not yet publicly commented on Mr. Navalny's death. On Saturday, he attacked President Biden, saying in an online post: “I am the only one who can bring peace, prosperity and stability, as I did during my first term. America will be respected and feared again (if necessary!).”

On Friday, shortly after news of Ms. Navalny's death emerged, Ms. Haley went further than most Republicans in attacking Mr. Trump for his past comments in praise of Mr. Putin. At her rallies since then, she has underscored Trump's cozy relationship with the Russian leader and sought to raise alarm over his suggestions that he would encourage Russian aggression against U.S. allies in Europe.

She also spoke on Saturday The news that Russia was developing a nuclear space weapon with the potential to destroy satellites, and called for the prevention of war in space.

Russian authorities announced on Friday that Mr Navalny, who served multiple sentences in Russia, had died in a prison within the Arctic Circle. President Biden has said that US officials did not fully understand the circumstances, but that he believed “there is no doubt that Navalny's death was a result of something that Putin and his thugs did.”

At the news conference on Saturday, Ms. Haley asked Mr. Trump: “Why does he always side with dictators?”