Ksenia Karelina, who has dual Russian and American citizenship and was arrested earlier this year while visiting her family in Russia, is facing a Russian court in a treason case. The authorities accused her of collecting funds for Ukraine, reports Reuters, quoted by News.bg.
Karelina, who was born in Russia but immigrated to the United States more than a decade ago and works at a Los Angeles spa, faces 12 years to life in prison if convicted for guilty.
Her trial will be held behind closed doors, as is customary in such cases in Russia. Acquittals for treason in Russia are rare.
More than ten Americans are currently imprisoned in Russia, part of a growing list of foreign nationals who have become embroiled in the crisis in relations between Moscow and Washington during the war in Ukraine.< /p>
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) detained Karelin in January while she was visiting her parents and little sister in Yekaterinburg. Karelina's former mother-in-law, Eleonora Srebroski, told Reuters in February that Karelina traveled home around New Year's after her boyfriend surprised her with a plane ticket. She assured her friend that Russia was "safe" and that he had no reason to fear for her journey thither.
Initially arrested on a minor charge of "petty hooliganism", Karelina was later charged with treason. Srebrosky said Karelina made a small donation to Razom for Ukraine, a New York-based non-governmental organization that sends non-military aid to the country attacked by Russian forces in 2022.
Karelina, who is in her mid-thirties, arrived in the US in 2012 through a work-study program and was briefly married to Srebroski's son. Her ex-husband describes her as a cheerful woman who was not very interested in politics.
Karelina's social media profiles show pictures of her and her friends at the beach and on trips, without political messages. A photo from November 2021 shows her in a long dress, smiling and waving a small American flag with the words "Citizenship.".