American Ballerina Detained in Russia Has Appeal Denied

Ksenia Karelina was denied an appeal of charges against her in a Russian court on Thursday. She is a 32-year-old dual U.S.-Russian citizen. 

The crime Ksenia is accused of committing is treason. The charge was brought against her because she made a small donation – $50 – to a charity that aids Ukraine. She was arrested on January 27. 

Ksenia is a resident of Los Angeles. She moved to the United States in 2013 after graduating from college in Russia. She became a U.S. citizen in 2021 when she married an American citizen. She previously was a student at the University of Maryland. She is an amateur ballerina and currently works as an aesthetician in a Beverly Hills, California spa.

She appeared by video link in Sverdlovsk Region Court in Yekaterinburg, where she was arrested. Ironically, Yekaterinburg is the city where Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested last year on an espionage charge. He was in that city on a reporting trip. Evan was arrested as he exited a restaurant. 

Ksenia was shown in the video to be behind bars and wearing a long-sleeve white shirt. A Russian judge rejected her lawyer’s request that Ksenia be released from prison and be put under house arrest with her parents in Yekaterinburg until her trial. 

Her friend and employer issued a statement after the ruling.

“What’s happening to Ksenia is a terrible punishment,” said Isabella Koretz, a friend who owns the Ciel Spa in Beverly Hills, where Karelina is employed as an aesthetician. “Just to imagine that an American citizen is in Russian jail right now for making a donation to the victims of war and for having the audacity to visit her parents. Are these truly her crimes?”

“The American government and all of us here need to continue to fight for her release.”

Ksenia donated $50 to a New York-based group that gives humanitarian aid to Ukraine. It is called Razom for Ukraine (Together for Ukraine) and the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) accuses her of “proactively collecting funds in the interests of one of the Ukrainian organizations.”

On the day she was arrested, she appeared in court handcuffed with a cap drawn over her eyes. She was escorted by a man in military fatigues. Her court date was postponed because she did not have a lawyer. 

“There is tremendous repression taking place in Russia and it seems that because of her status as an American, she is caught up in it,” said Brian D. Taylor, a political science professor at Syracuse University.

Unfortunately for Ksenia, Russian law treats dual citizens as only Russian citizens. 

Ksenia’s boyfriend, Chris Van Heerden, lives with her in West L.A. (She is now divorced.) He is working diligently to get her back to L.A.

Van Heerden, 36, said Russian agents immediately questioned Karelina upon her arrival on Jan. 2 and took her phone. He said the FSB told her to check in weekly with security officials and banned her from leaving Yekaterinburg, where she grew up.

Van Heerdan said he spoke to Karelina the evening of Jan. 26 from Los Angeles — Jan. 27 in Yekaterinburg — when she told him she was going to meet officials to “sign documents and retrieve her phone.”

“She told me, ‘babe, it’s over, they said I have nothing to worry about,'” Van Heerdan recounted. “Instead, I found out she was jailed. Now all I can do is worry.”

He believes that her donation was discovered when Russian agents took her phone. I saw an interview Van Heerden gave on a cable news show. He has not made any headway on her release. He speaks regularly with the State Department. They tell him they are working on it.  

Sadly, the Biden administration does not have a good record of success in bringing American citizens back. Putin is jabbing his finger in Joe Biden’s eye with his increase in detaining American citizens and making headlines doing so. Since the beginning of his invasion of Ukraine, he has been testing the United States. Biden is seen as weak on the world stage which makes Americans vulnerable overseas. Putin’s playbook now is to hold Americans hostage for the release of Russian prisoners elsewhere. 

This isn’t the time for Americans to be in Russia. The State Department has urged Americans to leave the country and not to travel there. Perhaps Ksenia thought she would be ok because she is a dual citizen.

Her boyfriend is feeling guilty over her detention. He bought her a ticket to fly home to visit her parents as a birthday gift. He said he plans to propose to her when she comes home. 

“I thought it might be dangerous for her to go, with everything going on with the war in Ukraine, but she reassured me that she was Russian and that everything would be fine,” said Van Heerden, who lived with his girlfriend in West L.A. “So for her birthday in December, I bought her a ticket. She was so excited. Now, I am hitting myself over the head about it.”

She initially thought she would be ok after hours of interrogation by Russian authorities upon her arrival in the country. She told Van Heerden that she had a meeting scheduled to retrieve her phone.

The two kept in regular touch until the evening of Jan. 26 — Jan. 27 in Russia — when Karelina said she was about to leave her family’s home to meet government officials in order to retrieve her phone. Instead, he said, he learned that she never returned.

Chris van Heerden is a South African professional boxer and a former IBO welterweight champion. He is urging all his fans to pray for Ksenia.