Ksenia Karelina, a resident of Los Angeles, is being detained in a Russian prison on the charge of treason. She is a dual American-Russian citizen.
She allegedly raised money for a Ukrainian organization that bought weapons and equipment for Ukraine’s military. She is alleged to have donated $50 to Ukraine for the war effort, as Russian officials accuse her of doing after taking her phone and searching it.
Ksenia was arrested by Russia’s main security agency, the Federal Security Service, known as the F.S.B., in February. She was arrested in Yekaterinburg. She was visiting her grandmother. That is the same central Russian city in which the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested last year on an espionage charge. Ksenia became a US citizen in 2021. She moved to the United States in 2013. She is a ballerina and she works in a spa in Los Angeles.
In March she…
