Ksenia Karelina had left Los Angeles across the New 12 months on a flight to Moscow through Istanbul. She was excited to see her youthful sister, dad and mom and grandmother in Yekaterinburg, the town east of the Ural Mountains in Russia that she had left greater than a decade in the past to begin a brand new life in America.
Now the 33-year-old spa aesthetician and novice ballerina, a twin citizen of Russia and the US, is behind bars in Russia on treason costs, with family members fearing for her destiny and U.S. officers warning that the nation has grow to be too harmful for any American to stay.
Phrase of her arrest got here from the principle Russian safety company, and the treason costs stemmed from an obvious donation to a New York-based Ukrainian charity that aids Ukraine’s army, which for practically two years has been preventing off Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Eleonora Srebroski mentioned she was nervous Karelina, her former daughter-in-law, wouldn’t make it out of Russia, the place repression underneath President Vladimir Putin has grown harsher for the reason that begin of the struggle in Ukraine.
“I don’t have hope for Russian justice. It doesn’t exist. However right here, we stay in a robust nation, and we are able to make noise and entice consideration,” she mentioned, talking close to Baltimore. “I simply hope she doesn’t spend the remainder of her life in jail…. I do know in Russia she will probably be bodily abused, mentally abused, and I’m very involved.”
The case, the most recent detention involving an American citizen in Russia, drew a pointy warning from the White Home that U.S. nationals shouldn’t stay within the nation. Spokesman John Kirby instructed reporters Tuesday that the Biden administration was trying to study extra concerning the arrest and the circumstances surrounding it.
The State Division mentioned no consular entry had but been granted, and spokesman Matthew Miller instructed reporters that twin nationals such because the arrested lady are in impact handled as Russian residents for authorized functions.
Consultants have mentioned Russian authorities can goal Individuals as potential bargaining chips for attainable use in prisoner swaps, such because the one during which U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner was freed in late 2022. That change concerned a Russian arms seller named Viktor Bout.
Kirby mentioned Tuesday that U.S. nationals in Russia have been in energetic hazard.
“I wish to reiterate our very robust warnings concerning the hazard posed to U.S. residents inside Russia,” he mentioned. “So should you’re a U.S. citizen, together with a twin nationwide residing in or touring in Russia, you ought to depart proper now.”
Information of the Los Angeles lady’s arrest comes at a time when the authoritarian nature of the Russian state is inflicting deep alarm in Western capitals. Final week, Russian authorities introduced that Putin’s most vocal critic, opposition determine Alexei Navalny, had died in a distant Arctic penal colony. President Biden, together with human rights teams and European leaders, blamed Putin’s regime.
A press release from Russia’s Federal Safety Service, often called the FSB, didn’t establish the detained Los Angeles lady by identify, however a bunch of Russian attorneys that tracks such instances recognized her as Ksenia Khavana, her married identify. Mediazona, an unbiased Russian information outlet, recognized her by her maiden identify, which she used on her social media accounts.
The FSB mentioned in a press release that she was accused of “proactively gathering funds within the pursuits of one of many Ukrainian organizations, which have been subsequently used to buy tactical drugs objects, tools, weapons and ammunition by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”
The Russian attorneys group often called Perviy Otdel, or First Division, mentioned she was accused of sending a donation of simply over $50 to the group Razom for Ukraine, or Collectively for Ukraine. It identified that such donations could possibly be tracked by financial institution data that might simply be recovered from an individual’s telephone throughout a border crossing or different checks by authorities.
“We suggest deleting the historical past of cash transfers to international accounts from banking functions, together with international banks,” the group wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Russian authorities mentioned the arrest happened in Yekaterinburg, which can also be the place Wall Road Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested in March final yr.
A video printed by the Russian information company RIA Novosti confirmed the lady, carrying a puffer jacket and a knit hat pulled down over her eyes, being positioned in handcuffs and led right into a courtroom.
Karelina moved to the U.S. as a part of a program to work and research English within the Baltimore space shortly earlier than getting married in 2013, Srebroski mentioned. Although the wedding to her son, Evgeny Khavana, didn’t work out, the previous couple stored in shut contact as the lady moved to Los Angeles in 2015 to begin anew with a greatest good friend, Srebroski mentioned.
Her profile on the Russian social media platform VK mentioned she grew to become a U.S. citizen in 2021.
Karelina shared images on social media of her travels throughout her adopted nation: posing by the Pacific Ocean, dancing on the Brooklyn Bridge and snowboarding within the Pennsylvania mountains.
“When you meet her, it’s tough to not love her,” mentioned Srebroski, who considers her a good friend.
Information present Karelina residing in an residence within the Miracle Mile space. A constructing worker on the five-story advanced mentioned he was not approved to substantiate whether or not she was a resident.
In accordance with her LinkedIn account, Karelina labored as a supervisor on the Ciel Spa on the SLS Resort in Beverly Hills. Isabella Koretz, the spa’s proprietor, mentioned in a press release that she was “devastated” by the information. “To know Ksenia is to like her and this heartbreaking information is so tough to share nevertheless it should be completed to unfold her story and search justice. Please assist us unfold the phrase and produce Ksenia house!”
Evgeny Khavana, who didn’t reply to calls from a reporter, didn’t wish to converse to the media, based on his mom, Srebroski.
“However he talked to her on a regular basis. They have been in contact frequently whereas she was in Russia, and he mentioned she had been by way of additional examinations already upon touchdown within the airport in Moscow,” mentioned Srebroski, a monetary knowledge analyst within the Baltimore space. “Then, he misplaced contact just lately and have become nervous that one thing might have occurred to her. Now we all know what.”
The accusations once more Karelina could possibly be punishable by as much as 20 years in jail.
Whilst her arrest was introduced, an enchantment by Gershkovich, the jailed Wall Road Journal reporter, was rejected by a courtroom in Moscow. Gershkovich stays in pretrial detention after having been arrested on an espionage cost, which he and the Journal have vigorously denied.
The Mediazona report mentioned Karelina had been detained in Yekaterinburg on Jan. 28 and initially charged with “hooliganism,” with the way more critical allegations towards her leveled later.
Along with Gershkovich, a twin Russian American citizen, Alsu Kurmacheva, is being held in Russia. An editor with Radio Liberty-Radio Free Europe, she was arrested within the fall afer touring from her base in Prague to go to kinfolk in Russia. She has been accused of failing to register as a international agent.
One other high-profile case is that of Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who’s serving a 16-year sentence on espionage costs. He has denied the costs, and the State Division considers him wrongfully detained.
Kaleem reported from Los Angeles, Ayres from Kyiv, Ukraine, and King from Washington.
