One of Putin's closest allies in blame game over Trump attempted assassination (original) (raw)

Dmitry Medvedev claimed Ukraine's government 'paid' for the failed assassination bid on Donald Trump in Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday after it emerged to suspect was an anti-Putin activist

Putin's ally Dmitry Medvedev suggests Ukrainian government may have sponsored Sunday's failed Donald Trump assassination plot

One of Putin's closest allies has made a bizarre conspiratorial claim that Ukraine organised a second assassination bid on Trump.

Dmitry Medvedev made the unsubstantiated claim on X, formerly Twitter, suggesting Sunday's attempt was "paid for" by the Ukrainian government. The suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, appears to have been a pro-Ukraine activist who had previously spoken to Romanian TV calling for more US arms support in the war-torn country.

Shots were fired at the Trump International Golf Course in Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday as the ex-president played golf. Routh, 58, was later arrested in neighbouring Martin County driving away from the scene.

Putin's ally Dmitry Medvedev has continued to spout anti-West vitriol on his social media platform (

Image:

Kremlin.ru/e2w)

Former Russian president Medvedev - now a top security official - said on the platform, on which he has 1.3million followers: “I wonder what would happen if it turned out that the failed new Trump shooter Routh, who recruited mercenaries for the Ukrainian army, was himself hired by the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev for this assassination attempt?” Medvedev is currently deputy chairman of the Kremlin’s security council which Putin chairs.

Meanwhile Routh is known to have travelled to Kyiv, and championed sending Western arms and fighters to Ukraine. He previously told Newsweek in Romania: “This conflict is definitely black and white...This is about good versus evil.”

Medvedev took over the Russian presidency from Putin in 2008 and served for four years, enabling the dictator to return in 2012 and remain within the constitution. For these four years, Putin served as prime minister.

In recent years, Medvedev has become vitriolic in his anti-Western and anti-Ukrainian views. The Kremlin is widely seen as preferring a Trump presidency, believing that US and other Western military aid to Ukraine would cease.

Trump has previously refused to declare support for Ukraine in the war, claiming ambiguously that he wanted to see an end to the conflict. The candidate was criticised by Vice President and opponent Kamala Harris for not having a tough enough stance against the aggression of Putin, the likes of which she claimed would "eat [Trump] for lunch".