Vladimir Putin’s secret safety power the FSB has arrested a twin Russian-American ballerina on treason fees, officers confirmed Tuesday.
Video posted by a Russian information company reveals 32-year-old Ksenia Karelina being led right into a courtroom in handcuffs together with her face blurred. It isn’t clear when the video was recorded.
Karelina is a resident of Los Angeles who grew to become a US citizen in 2021. Her social media pages are suffering from photographs of her smiling, loving life within the US. Final summer time, she married her husband, a to this point unidentified American.
In January, she was arrested on the identical day that Putin sat down for his extensively panned interview with Tucker Carlson. The apprehension happened outdoors of a movie show in Yekaterinburg. The preliminary fees associated to swearing offenses.
Yekaterinburg, the biggest metropolis within the Ural area, can also be the place Wall Avenue Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich was arrested on spying fees almost 12 months in the past.
A subsequent investigation noticed Karelina accused of fundraising for a Ukrainian navy trigger. She is particularly accused of transferring $51.80 from an American checking account to Ukrainian charity, Razom.
Treason fees can carry penalties of as much as 20 years in jail. Since 2023, 63 individuals have been charged with treason in Russia, 37 have been discovered responsible.
On her Fb web page, Karelina says that she’s from Yekaterinburg and that she studied ballet on the S. P. Diaghilev faculty.
An announcement from Russian officers refers to Karelina as a resident of Los Angeles
Karelina is accused of fund elevating for a pro-Ukrainian group, she attained US citizenship in 2021
Karelina says that she’s from Yekaterinburg that she studied ballet on the S. P. Diaghilev faculty
Karelina is accused of ’proactively gathering funds since February 2022 within the pursuits of a Ukrainian group’
Karelina is accused of ’proactively gathering funds since February 2022 within the pursuits of a Ukrainian group, which have been subsequently used to buy tactical drugs, tools, weapons and ammunition for the Armed Forces of Ukraine,’ the FSB alleges.
’As well as, the citizen in query repeatedly took half in public actions in help of the Kyiv regime whereas in the USA,’ the company added, studies The Moscow Occasions.
Russian language outlet Mediazona studies that Karelina has been a US citizen since 2021 and that in 2023 she married an American man.
Karelina graduated from Ural Federal College in 2013. Quite a few posts on her Fb web page present her in Baltimore, Maryland, starting in 2014.
Mediazona studies that Karelina was first arrested on fees of ’petty hooliganism,’ for swearing. Whereas in custody, these fees have been upgraded to ’excessive treason.’
The outlet goes on to report that Karelina ceased posting on the Russian social media web site VK in 2021 after discussing getting American citizenship on the platform.
Razom, the Ukrainian charity that she’s accused of supporting, describes itself as ’contributing to the institution of a safe, affluent, and democratic Ukraine.’
On her LinkedIn web page, Karelina says that she works as a supervisor at Ciel Spa Beverly Hills, a task that she’s been in since 2019.
Karelina pictured with pals in a Fb submit from 2017
On her LinkedIn web page, Karelina says that she works as a supervisor at Ciel Spa Beverly Hills, a task that she’s been in since 2019
Mediazona studies that Karelina was first arrested on fees of ’petty hooliganism,’ for swearing. Whereas in custody, these fees have been upgraded to ’excessive treason’
Karelina is the most recent American behind bars in Russia, along with Gershkovich, former US Marine Paul Whelan and Texas dad David Barnes, 65, who final week was sentenced to 21 years in jail in Moscow on baby abuse fees.
On the identical day that Karelina’s arrest was introduced, Gershkovich appeared in a Moscow court docket the place he had his pre-trial detention prolonged.
Earlier this month, Putin advised former Fox Information host Tucker Carlson in an interview that he was open to the concept of releasing People held in Russian jails however didn’t talk about specifics.
’I don’t rule out that the particular person you seek advice from, Mr Gershkovich, might return to his motherland. We wish the US particular providers to consider how they will contribute to reaching the objectives our particular providers are pursuing,’ Putin advised Carlson.
Quite a few studies have prompt that Putin is all for discussing an alternate involving Vadim Krasikov, the murderer answerable for the taking pictures of Chechen insurgent Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in Berlin in 2019.