Los Angeles woman arrested on treason charge in Russia’s Yekaterinburg for pro-Ukraine activities

Russia’s Federal Security Service announced Tuesday the arrest of a 33-year-old woman on treason charges, accusing her of taking part in pro-Ukraine protests outside Russia and of sending aid to Kyiv.

The woman, a dual American-Russian citizen, was not identified in a statement issued by the Federal Security Service, or FSB, which said she “was involved in providing financial assistance to a foreign state in activities directed against the security of our country.”

The statement identified her as a “resident of Los Angeles.”

Russian treason cases are opaque, with trials closed and evidence classified.

Ksenia Karelina had left Los Angeles around the New Year on a flight to Moscow via Istanbul. She was excited to see her younger sister, parents and grandmother in Yekaterinburg, the city east of the Ural Mountains in Russia that she had left more than a decade ago to start a new life in America.

Now the 33-year-old spa aesthetician and amateur ballerina, a dual citizen of Russia and the United States, is behind bars in Russia on treason charges, with loved ones fearing for her fate and U.S. officials warning that the country has become too dangerous for any American to remain.

The State Department said no consular access had yet been granted, and spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters that dual nationals such as the arrested woman are in effect treated as Russian citizens for legal purposes.

The Russian lawyers group known as Perviy Otdel, or First Department, said she was accused of sending a donation of just over $50 to the group Razom for Ukraine, or Together for Ukraine. It pointed out that such donations could be tracked by bank records that could easily be recovered from a person’s phone during a border crossing or other checks by authorities.

“We recommend deleting the history of money transfers to foreign accounts from banking applications, including foreign banks,” the group wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

In a statement, Razom said its leaders were “appalled” that Karelina reportedly faced charges for giving money to the group, which focuses on “humanitarian aid, disaster relief, education and advocacy” in support of a “prosperous, secure and democratic future for Ukraine.”

Treason trial of Russian American woman opens amid rising tensions​

The trial is being held behind closed doors in Yekaterinburg, in the same court that next week is to begin hearing the case of Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was arrested in March 2023 and charged with espionage.

The defendant was identified by Russian authorities as Los Angeles resident Ksenia Karelina, although U.S. media reports frequently use the surname Khavana, the name of her ex-husband.

Karelina faces a sentence of up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Almost all Russian criminal cases that make it to court end in convictions.

Alas, Ksenia (and others) were not among those released today. Don't want to rain on anybody's parade, but the job is not over.

Not all Americans currently imprisoned in Russia were involved in the swap. American teacher Marc Fogel, musician Michael Travis Leake, U.S. Army staff sergeant Gordon Black, and Russian-American ballerina Ksenia Karelina remain imprisoned, among others.

Ksenia Karelina, a US-Russia dual national, freed in a prisoner swap between Moscow and Washington​

[Putin has pardoned her of treason, which was for a $50 donation to a Ukrainian charity.]

[Exchanged for Arthur] Petrov was arrested in Cyprus in August 2023 at the request of the U.S. on charges of smuggling sensitive microelectronics to Russia and extradited to the U.S. a year later.