Russia sentences US-Russian citizen Karelina to 12 years in prison for treason

[August 15, 2024]  YEKATERINBURG, Russia (Reuters) -A Russian court sentenced a dual Russian-American citizen, Ksenia Karelina, to 12 years in prison on Thursday after finding her guilty of treason for donating money to a charity supporting Ukraine.

The Los Angeles resident, a spa worker, pleaded guilty at her closed trial in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, where her case was heard by the same court that convicted Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich of espionage in July.

The court said investigators found that on Feb. 24, 2022 - the first day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine - Karelina had "transferred funds in the interests of a Ukrainian organization, which were subsequently used for the purchase of tactical medicine items, equipment, means of defeat and ammunition by the Armed Forces of Ukraine".

Her supporters say she had donated $51.80 to Razom for Ukraine, a New York-based charity that provides humanitarian aid to children and elderly people in Ukraine. The charity has denied it provides any military support to Kyiv.

Karelina, 33, appeared in court on Thursday in a white sweatshirt and blue jeans, sitting calmly in a glass courtroom cage.

She was not included in a major prisoner swap between Russia and the West two weeks ago that freed Gershkovich, but her lawyer, Mikhail Mushailov, has said she hoped to be included in a future exchange.

Karelina was born in Russia and emigrated to the United States in 2012 via a work-study program, receiving American citizenship in 2021. She was arrested by the FSB security service after flying to Russia to visit her family in Yekaterinburg at the start of the year.

Problems began immediately for Karelina when she arrived in Russia using her U.S. passport. Authorities interrogated her and took her cellphone on which they found the 2022 donation to the charity, Razom for Ukraine, on her Venmo account, according to the website

A portrait of Ksenia Karelina with her former in-laws and ex-husband in Maryland, U.S, December 13, 2015. Eleonora Srebroski /Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

The FSB interrogated her for up to two hours during mandatory weekly check-ins and banned her from leaving the city, the website says.

Three days before she was due to return to Los Angeles, Karelina was arrested on a hooliganism charges and jailed for 15 days.

Just before her release, she was slapped with a state treason charge. Acquittals for serious crimes are nearly unheard of in Russia.

Karelina's family and friends in the U.S. have described her as someone who didn't much care for politics and said they were shocked by her arrest.

Her boyfriend, Christopher van Heerden, told Reuters this month that he has been in contact with both the State Department and the U.S. embassy in Moscow about securing her release.

Unlike in the cases of Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who was also freed in the swap this month, Karelina has not been designated by Washington as "wrongfully detained", a label that would open up diplomatic avenues to negotiate a prisoner exchange.

(Reporting by ReutersWriting by Lucy PapachristouEditing by Mark Trevelyan, Guy Faulconbridge and Frances Kerry)

[© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.