Pelosi speaks out on Putin’s leverage over Trump: ‘It’s probably financial’

Pelosi blasts Trump for his reaction on Navalny’s death and calls him Putin’s ‘buddy in vileness’

Nancy Pelosi has suggested that Vladimir Putin probably has financial leverage over Donald Trump in damning allegations against the former president who failed to condemn the Russian leader following Alexei Navalny’s mysterious death in a Siberian prison.

“What does he have on Donald Trump that he has to constantly be catering to Putin?” the former speaker asked as she appeared on MSNBC on Monday night after returning from Munich in Germany where she met Navalny’s wife.

Navalny was a fierce Russian critic and opposition leader who died under mysterious circumstances in a brutal Arctic penal colony where he was serving a sentence.

“I don’t know what he has on him, but I think it’s probably financial,” she said. “Or something on the come – something that he expects to get,” she said, explaining Mr Trump’s refusal to denounce Mr Putin whom the majority of world leaders have blamed for Navalny’s death. The former president avoided mentioning Mr Putin in his post on Monday and compared his legal challenges in the country to Russia.

"The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country," he wrote on Truth Social.

Former US Speaker Nancy Pelosi (R) meets Yulia Navalnaya, wife of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny (EPA)

"It is a slow, steady progression, with crooked, Radical Left Politicians, Prosecutors, and Judges leading us down a path to destruction. Open Borders, Rigged Elections, and Grossly Unfair Courtroom Decisions are DESTROYING AMERICA. WE ARE A NATION IN DECLINE, A FAILING NATION! MAGA2024."

Ms Pelosi described Mr Trump as the Russian leader’s “pal” and “his buddy in vileness”, saying the statement is “it is beneath the dignity of a human being”.

She also said Mr Putin was probably the richest and one of the “most evil people in the world”.

She added that Mr Trump has also been “encouraging” Russia to invade Nato allies who don’t pay what he thinks is enough for protection.

Mr Trump earlier this month caused an uproar when he said he once warned a Nato ally that he “would encourage” Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” to countries in the alliance that do not spend enough on defence.

Navalny‘s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, has accused Mr Putin of killing her husband in a remote prison and refusing to turn over his body as part of a cover-up.