Kremlin on alleged Trump shooter’s Ukrainian links: Playing with fire has consequences

MOSCOW – The Kremlin said on Sept 16 that the Ukrainian links of the alleged shooter in the assassination attempt on former US president Donald Trump showed that “playing with fire” has consequences.

Asked about what the US Federal Bureau of Investigation called

an apparent assassination attempt on Trump,

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “It is not us who should be thinking. It is the US intelligence services who should be thinking. In any case, playing with fire has its consequences.”

The comment was a clear reference to the United States’ support of Ukraine against Russia.

CNN, Fox News and The New York Times

identified the suspect as Mr Ryan Wesley Routh,

58, of Hawaii, citing unidentified law enforcement officials.

Three social media accounts bearing Mr Routh’s name

suggest he is an avid supporter of Ukraine

in its war against Russia.

The Times reported it interviewed Mr Routh in 2023 for an article about Americans who were volunteering to help the Ukraine war effort.

Mr Routh told The Times he travelled to Ukraine and spent several months there in 2022 and was trying to recruit Afghan soldiers who fled the Taliban to fight in Ukraine. REUTERS