Former President Donald Trump’s two days of silence following the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is deafening, according to his former U.N. Ambassador and rival for the Republican nomination.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, on Sunday, said that Trump’s continued quiet over Navalny’s death in Russian state custody is a signal to our enemies that U.S. voters need to note.

“This goes back to the fact we need to remind the American people that Vladimir Putin is not our friend. Vladimir Putin is not cool. This is not someone we want to associate with. This is not someone that we want to be friends with,” she told ABC’s This Week.

“Two days and counting and Donald Trump still hasn’t uttered Alexei Navalny’s name,” she said later via the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Two days and counting and Donald Trump still hasn’t uttered Alexei Navalny’s name…
​​https://t.co/BAhKviUnvT

— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) February 18, 2024

Navalny, 47, died Friday in the “special regime” penal colony where he was serving out what remains of the 19-year sentence imposed following his arrest in 2021, according to Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service. Officials say Navalny fell ill after a walk and lost consciousness. First responders tried but were unable to revive the opposition leader, according to the Penitentiary Service.

Haley, who spent two years opposite Russian diplomats at the United Nations, said Navalny’s death can be laid directly at the feet of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who the opposition leader criticized and openly opposed for years before his three criminal convictions, and even after, from inside the Russian penal system.

“Putin has done to him what Putin does to all of his opponents — he kills them,” Haley said Saturday following a rally in South Carolina.

Trump, according to Haley, is going to have to weigh in on the matter if he wants to be president again.

“Trump needs to answer to that. Does he think Putin killed him? Does he think Putin was right to kill him? And does he think Navalny was a hero?” she said.

Haley is the lone remaining long-shot candidate still opposing Trump’s march toward the Republican nomination, where she trails him ahead of the primary in her home state of South Carolina by an average of 31 points.

The former diplomat has spent the length of her campaign for the presidency promoting U.S. support of Ukraine as their defensive war against Russian invasion enters its third year. Trump’s silence on the death of Putin’s greatest critic, she said, also comes far too soon after he told a rally crowd that he would encourage Russia to invade NATO member states that don’t meet his standards for defense spending.

“One of the presidents of a big country stood up, said, ‘Well, sir, if we don’t pay and we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?’ I said, ‘You didn’t pay, you’re delinquent.’ He said, ‘Yes, let’s say that happened.’ No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay. You gotta pay your bills,” Trump said last week.

Comments like that, according to the former ambassador, serve only to enable the Russian dictator when the U.S. should be standing with our allies.

“All he did in that one moment was empower Putin. And all he did in that moment was he sided with a guy that kills his political opponents, he sided with a thug that arrests American journalists and holds them hostage. And he sided with a guy who wanted to make a point to the Russian people: don’t challenge me in the next election or this will happen to you too,” Haley said.

Russia’s eighth presidential election will be held March 15 through March 17. Navalny was barred from participating due to prior criminal convictions, though those charges are widely considered to be politically motivated.

Putin, who has held the position of prime minister or president continuously since 1999, is expected to win the election by wide margins.

President Joe Biden said Saturday that the Russian president is to blame for Navalny’s death, concurring with Haley’s assertion.

“The fact of the matter is, Putin is responsible. Whether he ordered it, he’s responsible for the circumstances… It’s a reflection of who he is. It cannot be tolerated. I said there would be a price to pay. He is paying the price already. Since 2000, when I made that statement, Russians have had sanctions imposed on them in other regions and other impacts,” Biden said, according to pool reports.

Haley says that if Trump doesn’t speak up, his silence will betray his position on the death of the Russian opposition leader and the man who caused it.

“The fact that he won’t acknowledge anything with Navalny either he sides with Putin and thinks it’s cool that Putin killed one of his political opponents or he just doesn’t think it’s that big of a deal,” she said. “Either one of those is concerning. Either one of those is a problem.”

Trump did finally, albeit briefly, mention the deceased Russian opposition leader in a Truth Social media post authored Sunday afternoon, in which he shared an article by Tipp Insights comparing his own legal troubles with those of Navalny.

“‘Biden:Trump::Putin:Navalny,’” the former president quoted from the article, between posts about his New York fraud-trial penalty and his new line of sneakers.

Herald wire service contributed. 

Republican presidential candidate former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, speaks to the media before a campaign event at Irmo Town Park Saturday, in Irmo, S.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)