Another American Given 12-Year Prison Sentence In Russia

More Americans have been locked up in Russian this week. First, a Moscow court issued a 15-day sentence to a US citizen traveling in the country on charges of petty hooliganism. The man, identified as Joseph Tater, was detained on August 12. TASS described that he had “behaved aggressively” towards a police officer while checking into a Moscow hotel with incorrect documents.

But the much more serious case involves dual American-Russian citizen Ksenia Karelina, who has just been sentenced to 12 years in prison for “treason” by a Russian court after she donated about $50 to a pro-Ukraine charity. She had been detained last January in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg while visiting family.

Ksenia Karelina, via AP

The 33-year-old ballet dancer and spa working lives in Los Angeles, but after being apprehended while on the visit to Russia, “The court found Ksenia Karelina guilty of high treason and sentenced her to 12 years’ imprisonment in a general regime colony,” according to a statement of the Sverdlovsk Regional Court.

Prosecutors had initially sought a 15-year jail term after Russia’s FSB charged that the organization she gave to raises money to provide arms to the Ukrainian military.

And it appears she actually made the transaction while living and working in the United States. The BBC details:

Russian human rights activists said while living in the US she had made a single transfer of $51.80 on the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 22 February 2022. The FSB is thought to have discovered the transaction on her phone.

Her lawyer, Mikhail Mushailov, said Karelina had only admitted transferring the money and believed the funds would help victims on both sides. He told Russian media she would appeal against the sentence.

The charity in question is “Razom for Ukraine” and was founded in the US. It says it is focused on disaster relief and providing humanitarian aid in war-ravaged Ukraine.

The formal charges by prosecutors stated “proactively transferring funds to a Ukrainian organization, which the Ukrainian armed forces subsequently used to purchase tactical medicine, equipment, weapons and ammunition,” the Moscow Times reported.

Karelina’s case was actually held in the same court as The Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich, who was freed in a major prisoner swap deal between Moscow and Washington earlier this month.

There was talk that Karelina might be part of the swap. Her family is frustrated she wasn’t on the swap list, with her boyfriend, professional boxer Chris van Heerden telling news outlets, “There was a prisoner swap two weeks ago, and Ksenia was not on that list.” He said, “Ksenia should be home, and I’m angry, and I’m trying to hold my composure.”