By Bradford Betz Fox News Published February 20, 2024
The woman is reported to have received US citizenship after marrying an American
A 33-year-old amateur ballerina with dual U.S.-Russian citizenship has been detained in Russia and is facing life in prison for allegedly donating $51 to Ukraine’s war effort.
Russia’s main domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service, reported the woman’s arrest on charges of treason. The FSB said the woman is a resident of Los Angeles, California and accused her of collecting money for the Ukrainian military.
Ksenia Karelina, pictured here in custody, is reported to be a resident of Los Angeles. (Facebook/RIA Novosti)
American-Russian ballerina Ksenia Karelina arrested in Russia. (East2West)
“Since February 2022, she has proactively collected 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,” the FSB said. “In addition, in the United States, this citizen repeatedly took part in public actions in support of the Kyiv regime.”
The independent news outlet Mediazona identified the woman as Ksenia Karelina and said that she had received U.S. citizenship after marrying an American. The outlet reported that Karelina allegedly transferred around $51 to “Razom for Ukraine,” a nonprofit Ukrainian group.
American-Russian ballerina Ksenia Karelina arrested in Russia. (East2West)
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the White House and the State Department were aware of reports of the arrest and added that “we are trying to get more information and to secure some consular access to that individual.”
Kirby refrained from further comment due to respect for privacy, but reiterated “our very strong warnings about the danger posed to U.S. citizens inside Russia.”
“If you’re a U.S. citizen, including a dual national residing in or traveling in Russia, you ought to leave right now,” he said.
Ksenia Karelina holds dual U.S.-Russian citizenship. (Facebook/Ksenia Karelina)
U.S. State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller noted that when it comes to dual citizens of the United States and Russia, Moscow “does not recognize dual citizenship, it considers them to be Russian citizens first and foremost,” giving U.S. diplomats a difficult time getting consular assistance.
“What happened to Ksenia Karelina is very sad. It really hits home for me as someone who fled Soviet Russia more than 30 years ago and whose daughter is a ballerina,” said former DIA intelligence officer Rebekah Koffler.
“But it’s hardly surprising. Putin’s regime has always used hostage diplomacy as a form of statecraft and now that the confrontation between Moscow and Washington is at its highest ever, the Kremlin is ratcheting up this tactic to the maximum. No American, especially of Russian or Slavic descent, should go to Russia,” Koffler said.
She added: “Moreover, no one should be holding dual US-Russian citizenship or both passports. For the Russian state — if you are born in Russia, you are always Russian, not American, by law. Similarly, when you are born in the U.S., you are automatically a U.S. citizen, with minor exceptions, unless you renounce your citizenship. Having dual US-Russian citizenship is asking for it, asking for trouble, nowadays.”
The news of Karelina’s arrest comes as a Russian court ruled to keep Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in custody pending his trial on espionage charges that he denies.
The Moscow City Court rejected an appeal against Gershkovich’s detention filed by his lawyers, upholding an earlier ruling to keep him behind bars until the end of March.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is escorted from the Lefortovsky court in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Jan. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
That means Gershkovich, 32, will spend at least a year behind bars in Russia after his arrest in March 2023 while on a reporting trip to the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains.
Gershkovich and the Journal have denied the espionage allegations, and the U.S. government has declared him to be wrongfully detained. Russian authorities haven’t detailed any evidence to support the charges.
In December, the U.S. State Department said that Russia had rejected several proposals for freeing Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, a corporate security executive from Michigan who has been jailed in Russia since his December 2018 arrest on espionage-related charges that both he and the U.S. government dispute. Whelan was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Some analysts have noted that Moscow may be using jailed Americans as bargaining chips after U.S.-Russian tensions soared when Russia sent troops into Ukraine. At least two U.S. citizens arrested in Russia in recent years, including WNBA star Brittney Griner, have been exchanged for Russians jailed in the U.S.
Russki mir…
Russki gavno. 💩
Mafia land is a state sponsor of terrorism. When will the sleepy Biden administration finally see this and declare this?
I have to wonder why anyone would want to go to that shithole.
Any American still in mafia land deserves to be arrested. You have to be pretty dumb to be in the shithole, knowing that Putler is going on a purge.
I met a Russian couple the other evening. If I had any doubt about “brain washing” they are completely dispelled. They tried to argue that Bucha was fiction and they held to that view despite showing reports from independent NGOs. I have written on this site that I feel Russia needs to be wiped out as their population has been fed bullshit for three hundred years and there is no going back. It’s a view that I know is harsh and callous but I’ve confirmed, based on this limited conversation, my feelings the and understanding of Russian propaganda. Worst, they were young, perhaps in their late twenties and early thirties and show absolutely no hidden or overt independent thinking. It was only at the end of the conversation that I told them I was a Ukrainian American with deep roots in Ukraine. At that point they turned pale and just walked away. If this is representative of Moskali population, we will have this crap alive and well for several generations to come. That’s my sadness
Слава Україна
Слава його героям! 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦❤️🇺🇸
You should have asked the guy why is he not defending the motherland from nazis.
It is truly sad that our future, especially Ukrainian, generations need to put up with this in their lifetime. Hence another failure of the Baby Boom generation, who really fucked up this world of which I am a regretful member.
Hmm, I’m not convinced that’s generally the fault of the baby boom generation, Captain. We grew up during cold war, we still remenber it! Sure, some boomers somehow didn’t get the lesson that if the free world defends its ideals, it will prevail. Most prominent example is Angela Merkel (who had been brainwashed in the communist part of Germany). But afaics it’s rather people born in the 80s and later who didn’t get the lessons ofcmodern history and fell for a misguided ideal of pacifism instead.
This had been actively fueled by powerful financial interests, which put the allegedly positive consequences of globalism above all reasonable concerns. Blinded by profits, these hypercapitalists enabled the growth of totalitarian regimes and Putinstan enormously benefitted from that. All reasonable democrats should be able to see how wrongheaded this has been and make a stand for a better international order. Oligarchs and Kleptocracies can’t be allowed to run the world and that’s the lesson that has to be taught to all people who still think that peace does come naturally, without any efforts to enforce it. This dangerously naive thinking brought us into this mess and it needs to be actively corrected now.
Agree to disagree. Had we the baby boomers were successful in having our children appreciate and live by the values we learned, this world wouldn’t be so screwed up. Instead the Gen X and millennials are entitled little assholes. That was the baby boomers who did that and I 0lead guilty as cha4ged.
Uh, sorry, Foccusser, but I beg to differ: Nobody “deserves to be arrested” just because of supporting an attacked democracy to defend itself. Let’s not give aporoval to the cynical mentality of that fascist regime here! Karelina’s strengths obviously are dancing and a big heart, not so much intelligence, but nobody deserves time in one of those horrible Russian prisons for having made a dumb move. That’s simply inhumane and unacceptable for any real democrat (small d).
My first thought, too! Actually, “you rock, girl, but what were you doing in Putinstan in the first place? Why didn’t you get the hell out of this madness?”
Really, someone with a US passport has to be quite naiv to stay in this dangerous fascist country. American citizens are under enormous risk there and should move away as fast as they can. Forget about property left behind, that’s a matter of life or death! 😣