Dual US-Russian citizen sentenced to 12 years in prison for €46 donation to Ukrainian charity

A court in the city of Yekaterinburg in Russia’s Ural region has sentenced dual US-Russian citizen Ksenia Karelina to 12 years in a penal colony and fined her 300,000 rubles (€3,000) after finding her guilty of treason for donating money to a charity supporting Ukraine.

The 33-year-old Los Angeles resident was arrested in January while on a family visit to Yekaterinburg for her donation of $51 (€46) to the US nonprofit organisation Razom for Ukraine, which provides humanitarian aid to Ukraine, including medics on the frontline. Razom for Ukraine said in February that it was “appalled" to hear of Karelina’s arrest.

Karelina’s lawyer Mikhail Mushailov said that while his client had admitted to transferring the funds to Razom for Ukraine, she had never admitted her guilt in relation to the treason charges, according to Telegram channel SOTAvision.

Karelina, who studied at the Ural Federal University, according to her Facebook page, before marrying an American and being granted US citizenship, pleaded guilty on 8 August at a trial held behind closed doors in the same courtroom where Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was convicted of espionage last month.