Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said it was “absolutely appalling” that Donald Trump would compare himself to the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

“Donald Trump’s hero, Vladimir Putin, is responsible for the death of Alexei Navalny ... who was a champion of freedom and human rights, and he opposed the filthy, bloody imperialist invasion of Ukraine, which Donald Trump is, at best, very soft on,” Raskin said Wednesday on CNN.

“In fact, he’s Putin’s biggest ally in the United States and is responsible for now the pro-Putin sentiment within the GOP,” he added. “So to compare himself to Navalny is sickening.”

Raskin called Trump a “friend to every dictator and autocrat on earth” and noted the former president has had “every benefit of the rule of law and the American legal system” to fight the assorted civil and criminal cases against him.

Navalny, a prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died in custody in a Russian penal colony last week.

Western leaders were quick to blame Putin’s regime for Navalny’s death. Trump, however, remained mute on the matter for several days and then declined to condemn Putin (or mention him at all) when he broke his silence Monday in a statement invoking his own legal issues to suggest he is a victim of political persecution.

At a Fox News town hall on Tuesday, while discussing the $355 million judgment against him for fraudulent business practices, he called it “a form of Navalny.”

Trump has praised Putin for years while undermining relationships with U.S. allies, and under his stranglehold over the party, there has been growing Republican resistance to aiding Ukraine.

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) warned over the weekend that the 2024 election must prevent the “Putin wing of the Republican Party” from taking over the White House.