BBG Watch Commentary

U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul tweeted an exclusive Voice of America (VOA) Russian Service report on a National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden’s comment on President Putin’s pardon for Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

McFaul-TwitterThe Voice of America Russian Service called the National Security Council at the White House to request a comment on President Putin’s pardon for Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his release from prison.

See: Exclusive Voice of America Russian Service report on White House welcoming Khodorkovsky’s release, BBG Watch, December 20, 2013.

The White House welcomed the pardon, calling it a “humanitarian gesture” and “a positive development for Russian society.” But National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden also voiced concern about what she described as “politically motivated investigations and selective prosecutions in Russia.”

While U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul tweeted the VOA Russian Service report, he was not able to tweet anything in English from VOA on the White House statement because there was no separate report on it on the VOA English website.

Ambassador Michael McFaul posted on his Facebook page that “The United States welcomes the pardons of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and other Russian citizens.”