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The Sverdlovsk Regional Court in Russia’s Yekaterinburg has sentenced Ksenia Karelina, a dual U.S.-Russian citizen, to 12 years in prison on charges of state treason, as per a report by the Telegram channel Ostorozhno, Novosti.
State prosecutors had previously requested a 15-year sentence for Karelina in a trial that was held behind closed doors.
33-year-old Ksenia Karelina, a resident of Los Angeles, was detained in Yekaterinburg in January on charges of collecting and transferring funds to the Ukrainian military. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed the money was “used to purchase tactical medical supplies, equipment, weapons and ammunition for the Ukrainian armed forces.”
Karelina was accused of state treason for sending $51 to the Razom for Ukraine foundation shortly after Russia unleashed its full-scale invasion in February 2022 — a charge to which she has pleaded guilty, as per a statement from her lawyer last week.
Razom for Ukraine is a New York-based charity that provides humanitarian aid and disaster relief to Ukrainians affected by the war. The organization has denied any involvement in providing military support for Kyiv and has urged the U.S. government to demand Karelina's release from Russia.
Information about the transfer was reportedly discovered on Karelina's smartphone during a border inspection. Although she was initially allowed to pass through, she was later arrested for “petty hooliganism” and has remained in custody since.
According to an earlier report by SotaVision, Karelina's case was handled by Judge Andrei Mineev, who previously sentenced U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich, a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, to 16 years in prison.
Both Karelina and Gershkovich were tried behind closed doors, as Russian authorities claim treason cases deal with sensitive information that cannot be released to the public.
Gershkovich, along with former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan and dual U.S.-Russian citizen Alsu Kurmasheva, a reporter for Radio Liberty, returned home as part of the biggest prisoner exchange between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War on August 1. It saw the release of 24 people from prisons in six countries — Russia, the United States, Germany, Norway, Slovenia, and Belarus.
As part of the exchange, Russia received FSB hitman Vadim Krasikov, who murdered former Chechen military commander Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in broad daylight in a Berlin park in August 2019, as well as seven other convicted spies and fraudsters.
Krasikov was notably convicted following a joint investigation by The Insider and Bellingcat, which revealed Krasikov’s real name and obtained documents proving he was a member of the Russian intelligence services, after which he was handed a life sentence in Germany.
Sentences similar to Karelina's are believed to contribute to Vladimir Putin's “exchange fund” for negotiating the return of detained Russian spies and criminals. Read more on the “exchange fund” in The Insider's report.