Russian Officials Respond to Attempted Trump Assassination
July 15—Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova offered incisive comments about the attack on Donald Trump on July 13. Posting on her Telegram channel, she wrote: “Two months ago, I paid attention to the fact that the U.S. was literally fostering hatred toward political opponents, as well as provided examples of the American tradition of attempts and assassinations of presidents and presidential candidates. Commenting on the attempted assassination of Trump, all American media outlets have hurried to say that this is a threat to American democracy. They are right—this means that the threat is inside, not outside the country.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in comments reported by TASS, said this: “We don’t think at all and don’t believe that the attempt to eliminate the Presidential candidate Trump was organized by the present power, but it is the atmosphere that has been created by this administration during the political struggle, the atmosphere around the candidate Trump prompted what America is facing today. After numerous attempts to remove candidate Trump from the political arena using legal instruments at first, courts, the prosecutor’s office, attempts to politically discredit and compromise the candidate it was obvious to all outside observers that his life was in jeopardy."
Lastly, Russia’s State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin pointed to three causes behind the attack on Trump on his Telegram channel on July 14:
“The crisis of the American political system” where many decisions are taken without any concern for the interests or wishes of its citizens, where any opposition is met as an attempted coup and is suppressed.
“Serious division within society” which have “pitted Americans against each other along racial, religious, and political lines.” This has “Incited hatred and discord.”
3. "Concentration of the current U.S. government on interference in the affairs of sovereign states. Trump’s position on the Ukrainian issue could have been the cause of an act of aggression. This cannot be completely ruled out at this stage. Trump is one of the few Western politicians who openly spoke about the need to stop sponsoring military action. In confirmation of this version—the recent [May 15] attack on Slovak Prime Minister Fico. Earlier he stated that the West was using Ukraine for geopolitical purposes in the fight against Russia.
“The scenarios of the incidents are similar,” Volodin said. “With its longstanding policy, the United States has achieved the fact that it is literally on the verge of civil war…. Political opponents in the United States and Europe are using an agitated and divided society for their own selfish and vested interests. This is unacceptable. Cardinal changes are needed in the domestic and foreign policies of Washington and Brussels. Otherwise, big problems await the West.”