As of: February 21, 2024, 12:49 p.m
By: Sophia Lother
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Excerpts from a video that is supposed to show the arrested Ksenia Karelina.
© SNU/Imago
American ballerina Ksenia Karelina has reportedly been arrested in Russia.
She faces up to 20 years in prison.
Yekaterinburg - The death of Alexei Navalny has once again demonstrated the ruthless actions of Vladimir Putin's regime in Russia.
The indignation is great.
In view of this, the arrest of a young woman in Yekaterinburg, Russia, almost goes unnoticed.
And yet the case underscores the plight that many critics in Russia find themselves in.
According to its own information, Russia's domestic secret service FSB arrested the woman, who has Russian and US citizenship, on suspicion of treason.
She faces up to 20 years in prison.
The White House declined to comment further on the case on Tuesday, citing US data protection laws.
“We are aware of reports of the arrest of a citizen” with Russian and U.S. citizenship, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
“We are trying to get more information and get consular access to this person.”
US ballerina with Russian citizenship arrested: This is what she is accused of
As the Kremlin-critical medium
Mediazona
first reported, according to the research it was the former ballerina Ksenia Karelina.
The accusation: “Since February 2022, it has been proactively collecting funds in the interests of one of the Ukrainian organizations, which were subsequently used to purchase tactical medicine, equipment, weapons and ammunition by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
“In addition, this citizen has repeatedly participated in public actions in the United States in support of the Kiev regime,” the FSB said in a press release.
However, as the Russian rights organization Perviy Otdel emphasizes, support for the Ukrainian organization was far less than the FSB allegations suggest.
According to this, Karelina only transferred $51.80 to the Ukrainian charity “Razom for Ukraine” based in the USA in 2022.
Accordingly, Karelina could have been in custody by the authorities for longer than initially assumed.
She is said to have been arrested on January 27th for “minor rioting”.
Apparently she was not released after that, but was instead arrested and remanded in custody in February.
A video distributed by the state news agency Ria Novosti shows a young woman wearing a white jacket and a white cap pulled down over her eyes being led away by an officer.
In another clip, she is handcuffed.
US citizen Ksenia Karelina arrested in Russia: family contacts the White House
If convicted of treason, the ballerina, who has US and Russian citizenship, faces between 12 and 20 years in prison under Article 275 of the Criminal Code.
Karelina's family has now spoken out
to the
Daily Mail .
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Her mother-in-law, Eleonora Srebroski, addressed the White House from the US and said: "If America doesn't help, she will spend the rest of her life in prison." She added: "I am afraid for her and very worried, that she could be physically injured or killed in prison there.”
Already in March of last year there was an arrest in Yekaterinburg that caused harsh criticism of Putin's regime.
At that time, US journalist Evan Gershkovich was arrested for alleged espionage.
He has been in custody ever since.
Most recently, a court rejected Gershkovich's objection to the extension of his pre-trial detention until the end of March, the press service of the Moscow courts announced on Tuesday.
(slo with material from dpa and AFP)