Russian court gives 12-year treason sentence to Russian-American over $50 charity donation

A Russian court has sentenced a Russian-American woman to 12 years in prison for treason after she made a donation of just over $50 to a US-based charity supporting Ukraine.

Ksenia Karelina, 33, had pleaded guilty to the charges. She was detained in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg earlier this year while visiting her grandparents.

The verdict was announced Thursday after a closed-doors trial at Sverdlovsk regional court that ended last week. Investigators said Karelina had sent money to purchase equipment and ammunition for the Ukrainian army, RIA Novosti reported.

Karelina’s lawyer, Mikhail Mushailov, told Russian media he would appeal the verdict.

Her conviction comes two weeks after Russia and the West carried out the largest prisoner swap since the Cold War, where 24 people, including  former US Marine Paul Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, were released as part of a sweeping deal involving at least seven countries.

Ahead of the verdict, Mushailov told Reuters she hoped to be included in a future swap.

“An exchange is impossible until the court verdict comes into force,” he told reporters. “After the verdict, of course, we will work in this direction.”

Karelina, a Los Angeles resident and amateur ballerina who became a US citizen in 2021, traveled to Russia in January to visit her grandparents.

The couple had been on holiday in Istanbul, Turkey, from which Van Heerden returned to California while Karelina flew to Russia – her first visit home in several years.

Van Heerden said Karelina never spoke about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “She doesn’t watch the news, she doesn’t intervene with anything,” he said.

The organization to which Karelina reportedly gave money, the New York-based non-profit Razom for Ukraine, said it was “appalled” by her detention.

Karelina’s conviction comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin in April last year increased the maximum sentence for treason from 20 years to life in prison, as part of the crackdown on dissent that has intensified over two-and-a-half years of war.

Her trial was held in the same court in Yekaterinburg where just last month Evan Gershkovich was convicted of espionage and sentenced to 16 years in prison, before his release in the prisoner swap. Both cases were heard by Judge Andrei Mineev.