Russia Extends Detention of American Ballerina

Ksenia Karelina, a resident of Los Angeles, is being detained in a Russian prison on the charge of treason. She is a dual American-Russian citizen. 

She allegedly raised money for a Ukrainian organization that bought weapons and equipment for Ukraine’s military. She is alleged to have donated $50 to Ukraine for the war effort, as Russian officials accuse her of doing after taking her phone and searching it. 

Ksenia was arrested by Russia’s main security agency, the Federal Security Service, known as the F.S.B., in February. She was arrested in Yekaterinburg. She was visiting her grandmother. That is the same central Russian city in which the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested last year on an espionage charge. Ksenia became a US citizen in 2021. She moved to the United States in 2013. She is a ballerina and she works in a spa in Los Angeles. 

In March she was denied an appeal of charges against her in a Russian court. Russian prosecutors claim the money she donated to the group that supports Ukraine finances its army and purchases ammunition. She could face jail time of 12 to 20 years under Russian law.

The extension of her detention will keep her in prison until July. 

Her boyfriend is working to secure her release by trying to keep her story in the public eye.

Ballerina Ksenia Karelina ‘did not have a worry in the world’ before arrest in Russia, her boyfriend says https://t.co/qNtiUAzpzo pic.twitter.com/ysv6D8NAmh

— New York Post (@nypost) February 22, 2024

Her ex-husband calls it “stupid politics.” 

“It’s crazy,” Evgeny Khavana said from outside his home in the suburbs of Baltimore. “She must be going through a nightmare.”

“I understand why she went,” he said. “She has parents over there, she went to visit her parents. It’s stupid politics. Politics.”

The ex-husband of ballerina Ksenia Karelina imprisoned in Russia breaks his silence: ‘stupid politics’ https://t.co/jLrXYerjif pic.twitter.com/lT4AW4zxDi

— New York Post (@nypost) February 21, 2024

Some experts say that Putin is building up a bank of American citizen hostages for political leverage.

“The main goal of the whole operation is to build up a bank of hostages with American passports.”

–Russian investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov on the arrest of Ksenia Karelina, a Russian-American arrested in Russia for allegedly donating about $51 to Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/LKvhG9Eq6g

— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) February 22, 2024

At the heart of Ksenia’s trouble may be a photo that was found on her phone. 

A picture shows her at an anti-Putin and anti-war protest in Los Angeles — which may be the real reason the FSB secret service is acting so brutally against her.

She is holding a sign with a Ukrainian flag declaring ‘We want peace’ next to a friend with a ‘Stop Putin’ poster’.

It is unclear where the pictures were obtained by the Russian authorities, but it is known that Karelina’s cell phone was closely examined by Putin’s secret service agents after she arrived back in Russia in early January.

Her father spoke out in February. 

Speaking publicly for the first time in an interview with DailyMail.com, Pavel Karelina, 56, said he couldn’t comment on the Russian government’s ongoing case against his daughter, but thanked the public for their support. 

‘We really can’t say anything now. We ourselves are at a loss to understand what’s going on,’ said Pavel, a general director of a transport equipment company. ‘Please understand. Thank you for your good wishes.’

Putin is using American citizens as leverage for prisoner swaps. Joe Biden is seen as weak on the world stage. Putin is not afraid of Biden, as we see with Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Putin is jabbing a finger in Biden’s eye with each American citizen he grabs and puts into prison. 

Joe Biden’s weakness has made the world a dangerous place for American citizens traveling overseas.