Kremlin says Trump shooter's Ukrainian links show playing with fire has consequences

MOSCOW (Reuters) -The Kremlin said on Monday that the Ukrainian links of the alleged shooter in the assassination attempt on former U.S. President Donald Trump showed that "playing with fire" had consequences.

The remark was a clear reference to the United States' support of Ukraine against Russia. Washington has sent tens of billions of dollars of military aid to Kyiv in an attempt to help Ukrainian forces defeat Russia.

Asked about what the FBI called an apparent assassination attempt on Trump, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said:

"It is not us who should be thinking, it is the U.S. intelligence services who should be thinking. In any case, playing with fire has its consequences."

Peskov, when asked if the assassination attempt risked destabilising the United States, said it was not really Russia's business, though Russia was monitoring the situation.

"We see how tense the situation is there, including between political competitors," Peskov said. "The political struggle is escalating, and a variety of methods are being used."

CNN, Fox News and the New York Times identified the suspect as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, of Hawaii, citing unidentified law enforcement officials.

Three social media accounts bearing Routh's name suggest he was an avid supporter of Ukraine in its war against Russia.

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

Routh told the Times he'd 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.

(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; writing by Guy Faulconbridge and Felix Light; editing by Andrew Osborn and)