US-Russian Ballerina Facing 15-Year Sentence

A Russian-American ballerina has pleaded guilty to treason charges after she was arrested for donating money to a charity supporting Ukraine, Russian state media reports.

Ksenia Karelina is on trial in the city of Yekaterinburg over an alleged donation of $51.80 she made in 2022 to Razom, a charity providing aid to Ukraine that supports a range of humanitarian projects including the supply of first aid kits, wood stoves, generators, radios, and vehicles to frontline Ukrainian medics, according to its website.

She was arrested by the FSB security after flying to Russia to visit her family in Yekaterinburg, about 1,600km east of Moscow, in February, the BBC and Reuters reported.

Reuters added that Razom said it was "appalled" by her arrest at the time.

Her first case hearing on Wednesday came following the swap of 24 prisoners held in seven countries on August 1, where the Russian leader Vladimir Putin released 16 prisoners, including Evan Gershkovich, the 32-year-old Wall Street Journal reporter who was detained in Russia in March 2023, and Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine and computer security official who has been in jail in Russia since 2018.

The state news agency RIA said the prosecution and the defense would conclude their arguments on Thursday, and the verdict would be announced the same day, Reuters reported.

The 33-year-old, who worked at a spa in Beverly Hills, according to ABC7, remains in Russian custody, facing a sentence of between 12 years to life in prison if convicted.

The dancer's lawyer also said the Russian prosecutors' request for a 15-year sentence in a penal colony was too severe as she had cooperated with the investigation.

The dual-citizen ballet dancer was born in Russia but emigrated to the U.S. in 2012 and obtained her citizenship in 2021.

Karelina was not part of the major swap between Russia and the West. Karelina's lawyer Mikhail Mushailov told reporters it was "impossible" for her to be included in the swap, as an exchange can only be granted once the Russian court verdict comes into force, the BBC reported.

He reportedly added, "After the verdict, of course, we will work in this direction."

On Friday, Karelina's boyfriend Chris Van Heerden spoke on "ABC News Live" after she was not part of the prisoner swap, and said, "All this time I was calm, and I knew what to expect, so waking up yesterday morning with the news of a prisoner swap took me by storm. It took me off guard. I was emotional, angry, frustrated."

He has been campaigning to free his girlfriend from Russian detention since her arrest.

Who are other Americans still detained in Russia?

Following the prisoner swap, other families have also spoken out about loved ones currently detained in Russia.

Marc Fogel, a Pennsylvanian history teacher in his 60s who had taught in Moscow for nearly a decade, was detained in 2021 at an airport and charged with the possession of cannabis, which is illegal in Russia. His family said he used prescribed marijuana to treat chronic back pain, USA Today reported.

Gordon Black, an active duty U.S. soldier, was detained in Russia earlier this year on theft charges. Robert Gilman, a former marine, was sentenced to four and a half years in prison, later reduced to three and a half, for assaulting a police officer while drunk, the USA outlet reported.

Other names of those detained in Russia include Robert Romanov Woodland, who was sentenced last month to 12-and-a-half years in prison in a drug trafficking case, USA Today reported.

Eugene Spector is serving a three-and-a-half-year sentence for espionage, per the outlet, Michael Travis Leake was sentenced last month to 13 years in prison for drug smuggling, and David Barnes was sentenced to 21 years in February this year after his Russian ex-wife accused him of abusing his two sons in the U.S.

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