A dual US-Russian citizen suspected of giving roughly $50 to a NYC-based Ukrainian charity was tried for treason in the Ural city of Yekaterinburg on Thursday.
Ksenia Karelina, a 32-year-old Russian-born aesthetician and ballerina who works and lives in Los Angeles, was arrested by police in the Sverdlosk region at the end of January while visiting her family in Russia. The prosecution alleges that she was “proactively transferring funds to a organization, which the Ukrainian armed forces subsequently used to purchase tactical medicine, equipment, weapons and ammunition.”
Karelina was arrested by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) while she was visiting her parents and younger sister. Eleonora Srebroski, her ex-mom-in-law, revealed to Reuters in February that Karelina had returned home around the new year after receiving a plane ticket as a surprise from her lover.
Karelina was first taken into custody on a “petty hooliganism” offense, but was subsequently accused of treason. The 32-year-old, according to Srebroski, made a tiny payment to Razom for Ukraine, a nonprofit organization located in New York that provides non-combative relief to the nation that Russian armies invaded in 2022.
If proven guilty, she may get a term ranging from 12 years to life in jail.
