A Russian-American citizen has been released in a prisoner swap between Moscow and Washington.
Amateur ballerina Ksenia Karelina, a Los Angeles resident, had been in prison in Russia for over a year, after being arrested in early 2024 during a family visit in the city of Yekaterinburg.
She was accused by Russia’s FSB security service of raising money for a Ukrainian organisation providing arms to the Ukrainian military. She pleaded guilty last August and was sentenced to 12 years in jail.
Russian human rights activists said while living in the US she had made a single transfer of $51 (£39) on the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 22 February 2022.The charity in question denied raising money for weapons or ammunition, saying it was focused on humanitarian aid and disaster relief.
An image broadcast by Russian state media shows Ksenia Karelina being escorted by a security officer towards a plane at an airport in an unidentified location
The FSB is thought to have discovered the transaction on her phone.
In exchange, the US freed Arthur Petrov, a dual German-Russian citizen arrested in Cyprus in 2023. He was accused of illegally exporting microelectronics to Russia for manufacturers working with the Russian military.
