US-Russian woman sentenced to 12 years in prison for $51 donation

A Russian court has sentenced amateur ballerina Ksenia Karelina to 12 years in prison for treason after donating $51 (£39) to a charity supporting Ukraine.

Karelina, who holds dual American and Russian citizenship, pleaded guilty last week in a closed-door trial.

She lived in Los Angeles and became a US citizen in 2021. She was arrested last January while visiting family in Yekaterinburg, about 1,600 kilometres east of Moscow.

The prosecution had demanded a 15-year prison sentence. The court in Yekaterinburg found her guilty of high treason and sentenced her to imprisonment in a general regime penal colony.

Karelina was accused by the Russian secret service FSB of collecting money for a Ukrainian organization that supplies the Ukrainian military with weapons.

Russian human rights activists said she made a single transfer of $51.80 while in the United States on the first day of the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 22, 2022. The FSB reportedly discovered the transaction on her phone.

Her lawyer, Mikhail Mushailov, said Karelina had merely admitted to transferring the money and was convinced the funds would help victims on both sides. He told Russian media she would appeal the verdict.

The aid group Razom for Ukraine said earlier this year it was “horrified” by the amateur ballerina's arrest and denied collecting money for weapons or ammunition. It said it was a US-founded aid group that focused on humanitarian aid and disaster relief.

In June, Karelina appeared before the same court as Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter imprisoned for espionage but released earlier this month as part of a major prisoner exchange with the United States and other Western countries.

The cases in Yekaterinburg were heard by the same judge, Andrei Mineev.

Ksenia Karelina's boyfriend, boxer Chris van Heerden, said on Thursday that he was very angry with the US State Department.

“I woke up this morning with the news. I'm still sitting here processing what happened,” he told CBS News, the BBC's media partner.

“There was a prisoner exchange two weeks ago and Xenia was not on the list,” he said, adding that he had been campaigning for her to be sent home for the past eight months.

“Ksenia should be home and I'm angry and trying to keep my composure.”

In an interview with BBC Newshour, Van Heerden said he believed Karelina should never have returned to Russia earlier this year.

“My question now is: Can we get Ksenia declared 'wrongfully detained' today so that she can be included in the next prisoner exchange?”

When the United States declares that a person is “wrongfully detained,” it means that it considers that person a political hostage and negotiations are essential to secure his or her release.

He added: “To my surprise, there were two people [in the prisoner swap] who were not declared 'illegally detained' and were released – so why is Ksenia not at home?”

Since the start of the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian authorities have cracked down on dissidents. According to human rights groups, more than 1,000 criminal cases have been initiated against dissidents critical of the war.

Last year, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree raising the maximum penalty for treason from 20 years to life imprisonment. According to human rights activists, a record number of treason cases were opened last year.

In July, German-Russian teenager Kevin Lik was sentenced to four years in prison for high treason. He was one of 16 men and women released by Russia as part of its prisoner exchange with the West.

When Karelina was first arrested, she was accused of swearing in a public place, according to human rights group Perviy Otdel. But her first detention for “petty hooliganism” was extended when the FSB accused her of treason.

Before her arrest, she had worked at a hotel spa in Beverly Hills and had traveled to Yekaterinburg to visit her parents and elderly grandmother.

Karelina is her maiden name, and she is also known as Ksenia Khavana because she took her ex-husband's surname.

“I want to break down and cry and scream and lose my head, but I know I have to stay strong – and I have to keep fighting,” Mr Van Heerden told the BBC.

He expressed concern about the impact of Karelina's detention on her health.

“She is a very gentle person with a very good heart and I am afraid for her. I am afraid that her good heart will be trampled on and I know she is afraid.

I know she wants to break down and cry, but she pretends to be strong.”

“The fight does not end here,” he added. “The fight now is to bring them back to American soil. Our only hope is the U.S. government.”