U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accessed Twitter late on Sunday to criticize Russia’s decision to arrest Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader who has just returned to Moscow after recovering from nervous agent poisoning he attributes to the Kremlin.
“Deeply concerned about Russia’s decision to arrest Aleksey Navalny,” tweeted Pompeo. “Confident political leaders do not fear competing voices, nor do they see the need to commit violence or unfairly detain political opponents.”
Jake Sullivan, national security adviser to President-elect Joe Biden, also logged on to Twitter to call for Navalny’s immediate release.
“The Kremlin’s attacks on Navalny are not just a violation of human rights, but an affront to the Russian people, who want their voice to be heard,” Sullivan tweeted.
Navalny’s arrest in the passport control of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport was widely expected because the Russian prison service said he violated the terms of parole on a suspended sentence in a 2014 embezzlement conviction.
Navalny traveled from Berlin to Moscow after recovering in Germany from his poisoning in August. Confusion surrounded his arrival in Russia – his plane was scheduled to land at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport, where supporters and the media were waiting.
The 44-year-old man, who is President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent political opponent, ignored concerns about his arrest when boarding the plane in Berlin.
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“It is impossible. I am an innocent man,” he said.
James Rogers of Fox News and the Associated Press contributed to this report