Russia seeks 15-year sentence for US-Russian ballerina in treason trial
Russian-American ballerina Ksenia Karelina pleaded guilty on Wednesday to treason charges after she was arrested for donating around $50 (£39) to a charity that supports Ukraine.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) accused Ms Karelina of taking part in “public actions to support the Kyiv regime”, and prosecutors on Thursday asked for a 15-year sentence.
Ms Karelina, 33, is a Los Angeles resident and amateur ballerina who became a US citizen in 2021.
She entered Russia in January but the US did not learn of her arrest until February 8.
She was detained in Yekaterinburg, about 1,600 kilometres east of Moscow, while visiting family.
The FSB claims the money Ms Karelina collected was used to purchase tactical medical supplies, equipment, weapons, and ammunition for the Ukrainian armed forces.
The organisation to which she reportedly gave money, the New York-based non-profit Razom for Ukraine, said it was “appalled” by her detention.
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The sentence comes one week after American journalist Evan Gershkovich arrived back in the United States as part of the country's biggest prisoner exchange it had agreed with Russia in post-Soviet history.
Russia also released several prominent opposition figures who were imprisoned for criticising the Ukraine military operation.
Chris Van Heerden, Ms Karelina’s boyfriend, said he had bought her ticket to visit the country as a birthday gift. He said she was “proud to be Russian, and she doesn’t watch the news. She doesn’t intervene with anything about the war.”
“I believe America will bring her back to me,” he added.
Since sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has sharply cracked down on dissent and has passed laws that criminalise criticism of the operation in Ukraine and remarks considered to discredit the Russian military.
Concern has risen since then that Russia could be targeting US nationals for arrest.
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