Rubio Negotiates Release Of US Ballerina Jailed In Russia Over $50 Donation To Ukraine

Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,

An American-Russian dual national imprisoned in Russia last year on treason charges for allegedly donating to a charity supporting Ukraine was freed on April 10, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced.

Ksenia Karelina, 32, is “on a plane back home to the United States,” Rubio said in an April 10 social media post.

“She was wrongfully detained by Russia for over a year and President Trump secured her release,” Rubio wrote.

The Secretary of State added that the president will “continue to work for the release of ALL Americans.”

CIA Director John Ratcliffe told the Wall Street Journal newspaper that Karelina was transferred to the United States as part of a prisoner swap aided by the United Arab Emirates. 

The exchange took place at an airport in Abu Dhabi, he said.

“Today, President Trump brought home another wrongfully detained American from Russia,” Ratcliffe said. “ I’m proud of the CIA officers who worked tirelessly to support this effort, and we appreciate the Government of UAE for enabling the exchange.”

Karelina’s lawyer Mikhail Mushailov also confirmed to the Russian news agency Interfax that his client had left for the United States on a plane from Abu Dhabi.

“She was exchanged. She contacted her relatives two hours ago,” Mushailov said.

Mushailov told Reuters that Karelina had been released as part of a swap for Arthur Petrov, a dual German-Russian citizen arrested in 2023 in Cyprus at the request of the United States for allegedly exporting sensitive microelectronics.

According to an Aug. 9, 2024 statement from the U.S. Department of Justice, Petrov allegedly took part in a scheme to procure U.S.-sourced microelectronics on behalf of a Russia-based supplier of critical electronics components for manufacturers supplying weaponry and other equipment to the Russian military.

Russian and U.S. authorities have not confirmed the swap. The Epoch Times contacted the State Department for further comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

Karelina—also identified in the media as Ksenia Khavana—is a former ballet dancer who was born in Russia.

She arrived in the United States in 2012 via a work-study program and later obtained U.S. citizenship after marrying an American, though the couple eventually divorced.

Karelina reportedly worked as an aesthetician at a Los Angeles spa before she was arrested in January 2024 by Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, after returning to Russia to visit her family in Yekaterinburg.

She was initially charged with “petty hooliganism,” though authorities later accused her of treason, saying she had donated roughly $50 to a charity aiding Ukraine, which was invaded by Russia in February 2022.

Karelina was sentenced to 12 years in prison. A Russian court denied her appeal in November.

U.S. authorities have described the case against her as “absolutely ludicrous.”

It marks the second prisoner release negotiated between the United States and Russia since President Donald Trump took office in January.

In February, Moscow released Marc Fogel, a 63-year-old American schoolteacher who was jailed in Russia on drug charges.

Fogel was detained in Russia in August 2021. He was later sentenced to 14 years in prison for allegedly entering the country with marijuana.

Fogel was exchanged for Russian national Alexander Vinnik, who once operated one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, and was imprisoned in a U.S. jail on money laundering charges in 2017.