Donald Trump said in an interview with FoxNews on Sunday that he does not know the cause of the death of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, but believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “possibly” involved.

“I don’t know, but probably, I mean it’s possible, even likely,” the former US president said in an interview with FoxNews, as cited by Politico.

“He’s a young man, so statistically he should be alive for a long time, so something unusual happened,” Donald Trump added.

Navalny died on February 16 in a penal colony in Siberia. The USA and the European Union, as well as the family of the Russian dissident, directly accused Russia of being responsible for the death of the 47-year-old dissident. The Kremlin rejected these accusations.

Donald Trump, who dominates the Republican Party’s internal race for this year’s presidential nominee, has not made any public statement about who was responsible for his rival’s death.

In addition, Trump compared his fate with the fate of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, equating his legal problems with the beliefs of the opposition.

He was accused both during his stay in the White House and after it of being friendly with Vladimir Putin. The Republican candidate promised to stop the war in Ukraine on his first day in office, end aid to Ukraine and force Kyiv to come to the negotiating table.

In an interview with FoxNews, Trump emphasized that he hopes that he will not have a choice between “swallowing” Ukraine by Putin and sending weapons to Ukraine.