Blinken dismisses Russia accusations of Trump persecution

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday hit back at Russia’s allegation that the conviction of former president Donald Trump showed that the White House was targeting political rivals.

“I would say that’s a classic case of projection,” Blinken told reporters at a NATO meeting in Prague.

The top US diplomat declined any further comment on the Trump verdict, including on whether his NATO counterparts raised it, saying he does not discuss domestic US politics.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow that the conviction of Trump by a jury in New York on 34 charges in a hush-money case involving a porn star showed that President Joe Biden’s administration was “eliminating” its political rivals.

Trump, who has voiced admiration in the past for Russian President Vladimir Putin, is seeking to win back the White House from Biden in November elections. He risks jail time as the first president of the United States to be convicted of a felony.

Biden has been strongly critical of Putin both over the invasion of Ukraine and the treatment of prisoners including opposition figurehead Alexei Navalny, who died in a remote penal colony in February.