A court in Russia has sentenced US-Russian dual national Ksenia Karelina to 12 years in prison after finding her guilty of treason for donating money to a charity supporting Ukraine.
The Sverdlovsk Regional Court in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg returned its verdict on Thursday, sending the 32-year-old ballet dancer and spa worker, who pleaded guilty last week at a closed trial, to a “general regime colony”.
The Federal Security Service (FSB) had accused Karelina of collecting money for a Ukrainian organisation that was “used to purchase tactical medical supplies, equipment, weapons and ammunition for the Ukrainian armed forces”.
Her supporters say she had donated a mere $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 Ukraine.
Karelina was born in Russia and emigrated to the United States in 2012, receiving American citizenship in 2021.
A resident of Los Angeles, she was arrested by the FSB after flying to Russia to visit her family in Yekaterinburg at the start of the year.
She appeared in court on Thursday in a white sweatshirt and blue jeans, sitting calmly in a glass courtroom cage.
The US has accused Russia of arresting its citizens on baseless charges to use them as bargaining chips to secure the release of Russians convicted abroad.
Karelina’s sentencing comes just over two weeks after Russia freed The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former US marine Paul Whelan and 14 others in its biggest prisoner swap with the West since the Cold War.
On Wednesday, an American man accused of violence against a Russian law enforcement officer in Moscow was sentenced to 15 days in custody for “hooliganism”.
