Russian Harvard researcher faces deportation from US over frog imports

A Russian scientist, Ksenia Petrova, has been arrested in the United States on charges of smuggling frog embryos, the US Department of Justice confirmed on Wednesday, with the authorities now seeking her deportation.

Petrova, who is currently employed at Harvard University, was detained upon arrival at Boston Airport on 16 February, having flown in from Paris. According to prosecutors, she was found carrying frog embryos, which she intended to use for scientific research. The US government maintains that importing such biological materials requires formal declaration and a special permit — neither of which Petrova had obtained.

The researcher, 31, has said she was unaware of the need to declare the specimens. If convicted, she faces up to 20 years in prison.

The case has sparked controversy, not least because of Petrova’s political background. In 2022, she was arrested in Russia for taking part in anti-war protests and has since been an outspoken critic of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Petrova has expressed fears of persecution should she be extradited to Russia.

Petrova is currently being held in a detention facility in Louisiana. A hearing in her case is scheduled to take place on Thursday. According to The Harvard Crimson, the university’s student newspaper, Petrova was initially given a choice of returning to France and reapplying for a visa, or being deported and barred from entering the US for five years. She opted to return to France, but was detained when she mentioned the fear of political persecution if she returned to Russia, her lawyer, Gregory Romanovsky, said.