Ksenia Karelina sentenced to 12 years jail by Russian court for donating $51.80 to Ukraine Charity after dual Russian-American citizen went to visit home earlier this year only to become ensnared in treason allegations.
A dual Russian-American citizen was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Thursday by a Russian court after she was found guilty of treason for donating money to a charity supporting Ukraine during the ongoing war in the region.
Ksenia Karelina, 33, 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 Karelina had, on February 24, 2022 — the first day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — ‘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.’
Ballerina donated $51.80 to Razom
Previous reports described Karelina arriving at Russia’s Koltsovo airport in late January to visit her family. It was there that her cell phone was checked in the weeks ahead using the search word ‘Ukraine’. Law enforcement allegedly found evidence of a bank transfer to Razom, a pro-Ukrainian foundation in America.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed Karelina had proactively collected the money in the interests of one of the Ukrainian organisations before it jailed her.
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 according to the nypost.
Future prisoner swap?
Karelina was not included in a major prisoner swap between Russia and the West last week 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, receiving American citizenship in 2021, after marrying an American and moving to Los Angeles.
She was arrested by the FSB security service after flying to Russia to visit her family in Yekaterinburg at the start of the year.
Karelina had assured her partner that Russia was ‘safe’ and that he had no reason to fear her traveling there, according to relatives.
It remained unclear what options now existed for Karelina to avail herself following her sentencing and whether the U.S justice would seek to get involved.
