A Russian American ballerina who lives and works in Los Angeles has gone on trial for treason over an alleged donation of $50 to a pro-Ukrainian charity, in the latest court case to raise tensions between Washington and Moscow.
Ksenia Karelina, 32, was detained by police in the city of Yekaterinburg in late January while on a trip to visit her family in Russia.
Prosecutors accused her of “proactively transferring funds to a Ukrainian organisation, which the Ukrainian Armed Forces subsequently used to purchase tactical medicine, equipment, weapons and ammunition”.
Her boyfriend has said she made a single donation of about $50 to a Ukrainian organization, according to media reports.
She faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.
The trial is being held behind closed doors in Yekaterinburg, in the same court that next week is to begin hearing the case of Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was arrested in March 2023 and charged with espionage.
Karelina gave a wistful smile to reporters in court as she sat in the defendants’ cage ahead of the hearing, video published by the regional court showed.
The court held the actual proceedings behind closed doors, as is typical for treason trials, and scheduled another hearing for 7 August.
Karelina’s partner has publicly petitioned for her release.
Washington has accused Moscow of arresting its citizens on baseless charges to use them as bargaining chips to secure the release of Russians convicted abroad.
Gershkovich, the highest-profile American behind bars in Russia, is accused of gathering secret information from a tank factory in Nizhny Tagil, about 150km (90 miles) north of Yekaterinburg. His employers deny the allegation, and the US state department has declared him to be wrongfully detained.
Gershkovich’s trial, also closed, is to begin next Wednesday.
A journalist for US-funded Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe with US and Russian dual citizenship has also been held since October on charges of gathering military information and failing to register as a foreign agent.
Since sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has sharply cracked down on dissent and has passed laws that criminalize criticism of the operation in Ukraine and remarks considered to discredit the Russian military.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on Thursday reiterated a warning that no US citizen should travel to Russia for any reason, as they run “tremendous risk” of being detained.
