Russian-American Ksenia Karelina tried it in a Russian court on Thursday, after Russian officials claimed she had committed treason by raising cash for the Ukrainian military due to an alleged $51. 80 donation to a pro-Ukrainian charity.
Karelina, 33, faces a closed-door trial in Yekaterinburg, Russia, for treason. The court reportedly adjourned the case to August 7 on Thursday for an unspecified reason.
Karelina, who was born in Russia and became a U. S. citizen in 2021, was arrested at a Russian airport in February as she was on her way to make a layover at her 90-year-old grandmother’s house, her boyfriend Chris Van Heerden told NBC, after the couple spent a vacation. In Russia. Instabul for 4 days.
Van Heerden, who returned to California, said he bought Karelina’s plane tickets to Russia as a gift because she homesick.
Russia’s Federal Security Service announced the arrest of an anonymous Los Angeles resident, alleging that a user with dual Russian-American citizenship “proactively increased the budget in the interest of a Ukrainian organization” since February 2022, according to the Russian state-run Tass Point of Sale.
Karelina is accused of donating $51. 80 to the New York-based charity Razom for Ukraine, according to the Beverly Hills, California, spa where she worked in the past.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told ABC 7 that the U. S. embassy in Moscow is seeking to contact Karelina, though he said Russia had not identified any dual U. S. -Russian citizenship and was unlikely to grant access.
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Karelina moved to the United States in 2015 to study at the University of Maryland in Baltimore before moving to Los Angeles, the Associated Press reported. Karelina worked at Ciel Spa in Beverly Hills for 8 years, even though she had no relatives in the United States and had traveled to Russia at least once a year since leaving her home country. He reportedly planned to stay in Russia for two weeks with his grandmother, parents, and sister.
Several U. S. citizens have been arrested in Russia in recent years. Sgt. Gordon Black was sentenced Wednesday to nearly four years in prison after being found guilty of stealing and threatening to kill his Russian girlfriend. Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich was arrested last year on espionage charges after Russian officials claimed he had collected data on a Russian military facility on behalf of the CIA. The State Department and several other U. S. officials said Gershkovich was wrongfully detained. WNBA star Brittney Griner spent 10 months in a Russian prison for drug possession before she was released into a prison regardless. interchange. In 2018, former U. S. Marine Paul Whelan was arrested for espionage. The United States said it was racing to lose Gershkovich and Whelan.
Gershkovich will be tried on Wednesday in the same Russian court. His trial will also take place behind closed doors.
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