L.A. woman sentenced to 12 years in Russian prison over $51 donation to Ukraine
A dual U.S.-Russian citizen from Los Angeles was convicted Thursday of treason in a Russian court and sentenced to 12 years in prison on charges stemming from a $51 donation to a charity aiding Ukraine.
Ksenia Karelina, an amateur ballerina who worked at a skin care clinic in Beverly Hills before her arrest, had been taken into custody while visiting her parents in Yekaterinburg, Russia, in January, according to her family and friends.
Russian news reports said Karelina, who also goes by the last name Khavana, pleaded guilty in a closed trial last week.
A Russian civil rights group that tracks detentions, Perviy Otdel, or First Department, says the charges stem from $51.80 Karelina donated while living in the U.S. to the New York-based group Razom for Ukraine, or Together for Ukraine.The New York-based organization works on issues that include disaster relief and humanitarian aid.
Russia’s Federal Security Service said when she was arrested that Ksenia “proactively collected money in the interests of one of the Ukrainian organizations, which was subsequently used to purchase tactical medical supplies, equipment, weapons, and ammunition for the Ukrainian armed forces.”
A Russian American woman from Los Angeles is held in Russia on treason charges, apparently over a donation to a charity for Ukraine.
The trial took place in Yekaterinburg, in the Ural Mountains nearly a thousand miles east of Moscow. Her attorney, Mikhail Mushailov, said he planned to appeal the verdict.
“She admitted guilt in part in transferring the funds, but did not admit her intent to transfer the funds to the organizations where they were most likely received,” he said.
“She did not assume that the funds she transferred would be used for anti-Russian actions,” he said, according to the Interfax news agency.
Chris Van Heerden, Karelina’s boyfriend, said last week that he was “angry and heartbroken” when he learned she had pleaded guilty. The pair lived together in West L.A.
Ksenia Karelina, the Los Angeles woman detained by Russia over a Ukraine donation, has a court hearing this week, Russian media said.
“I don’t know why her lawyers told her to plead guilty. I’m learning everything through the media,” Van Heerden said. He said Karelina had donated to the aid group, but was not otherwise involved in political advocacy related to the Ukraine war..
Since sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has sharply cracked down on dissent and has passed laws that criminalize criticism of the operation in Ukraine or the Russian military. Concern has risen that Russia is targeting U.S. nationals for arrest.
On Aug. 1, Russia and the U.S. held the largest prisoner exchange since the end of the Cold War. Included in the swap were Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and American corporate security executive Paul Whelan, both of whom were convicted of espionage charges that they vehemently denied, and U.S.-Russian dual national Alsu Kurmasheva, a Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe journalist sentenced to 6½ years for spreading “false information” about the Russian military.
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Russian authorities typically do not engage in negotiations over prisoner swaps until after a trial. And because Karelina holds Russian and U.S. citizenship, experts say, Russia is likely to treat her solely as a Russian citizen.
Karelina arrived in Russia on Jan. 2 to visit family in Yekaterinburg, the city of 1.5 million where she grew up. Friends and family who had been in touch with her before her arrest said Russian authorities confiscated her phone when she arrived in the country. That is possibly how Russian officials gained access to her financial transactions to determined that she made the charity donation. She was then allowed to visit her family and instructed to not travel outside the local area.
Russian authorities arrested Karelina, according to her family and friends, on Jan. 27, when she traveled to meet Russian officials to retrieve her phone. State media first reported her detention on Feb. 20 after the Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, announced the arrest.
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