L.A. woman sentenced to 12 years in Russian prison for $50 Ukraine donation
A Russian ballerina who is also a US citizen has been arrested and jailed in Russia for donating $50 to a charity that helps Ukraine.
Ksenia Karelina, who has US and Russian citizenship, will spend the next 12 years of her life behind bars after being convicted of treason on Thursday, August 15.
Ksenia Khavana, 33, sometimes identified by her maiden name of Ksenia Karelina, was arrested in February after travelling to Russia to visit her 90-year-old grandmother,parents and younger sister in their home in southwestern Russia.
Khavana, a former ballerina, lives in Los Angeles and works at a Beverly Hills spa.
Three days before she was scheduled to return home, Karelina was handcuffed in the city of Yekaterinburg.
Russia’s FSB searched her mobile and found that she made a donation to Razom, a charity that provides aid to Ukraine, on the first day of the full-scale invasion in 2022.
Initially, the 33-year-old had been arrested on hooliganism charges, but the state later accused her of "state treason".
Russia’s Federal Security Service said the US$51.80 that Khavana donated was used to buy weapons deployed against Russia.
Investigators said she "proactively collected money in the interests of one of the Ukrainian organisations, which was subsequently used to purchase tactical medical supplies, equipment, weapons, and ammunition for the Ukrainian armed forces."
Her closed-door trial took place in Yekaterinburg, a city in the Ural Mountains, before the same court and judge that convicted Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich of espionage. Gershkovich was released from prison early this month as part of a prisoner exchange between Russia and the US.
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