Trump says Navalny was 'brave' but should not have returned to Russia

GREENVILLE, South Carolina (Reuters) -- Former U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Alexei Navalny was "a very brave man" who probably should not have returned to Russia, without assigning any blame for the Russian opposition leader's unexpected death.

Democratic President Joe Biden and other Western leaders have blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for Navalny's death, as has Nikki Haley, who trails far behind Trump as his sole remaining rival for the Republican presidential nomination.

"Navalny is a very sad situation, and he is a very brave, he was a very brave guy because he went back. He could have stayed away," Trump said during a town hall interview with Fox News in South Carolina.

"And, frankly, he probably would have been a lot better off staying away and talking from outside of the country as opposed to having to go back in, because people thought that could happen and it did happen. And it's a horrible thing," he said.

The Kremlin has denied involvement in Navalny's death and said Western claims that Putin was responsible are unacceptable.

Trump -- who has expressed admiration for Putin both during his 2017-2021 White House tenure and afterward -- continued to compare himself to Navalny, implying that they both had faced politically motivated prosecutions.

"But it's happening in our country too," Trump said. "We are turning into a communist country in many ways. And if you look at it -- I'm the leading candidate. I get indicted."

On Sunday, Trump wrote in a Truth Social post that Navalny's death in an Arctic penal colony last week had made him "more aware of what is happening" in the United States. Trump did not elaborate, but he has frequently dismissed the 91 criminal charges against him as