Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced Tuesday it arrested a woman holding Russian and U.S. citizenship on suspicion of treason, accusing her of raising funds for the Ukrainian army as the two-year anniversary of Moscow’s invasion approaches.
The headquarters of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor agency to the KGB, in central ... [+]
The FSB security service told state media the woman was arrested on charges of treason in the Ural city of Yekaterinburg.
The agency, one of the successors to the Soviet-era KGB, identified her only as a 33-year-old resident of Los Angeles.
Independent Russian outlet Mediazona said it had identified the woman as Ksenia Karelina, though other outlets have identified her as Ksenia (Karelina) Khavana, where Karelina is likely a maiden name.
The woman had provided financial assistance to a foreign country working against Russia’s security interests since February 2022, the FSB said, including raising funds for a Ukrainian organization that were used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to buy tactical medical supplies, equipment, weapons and ammunition.
The woman also took part in public activities supporting the “Kyiv regime,” the FSB said, without specifying details.
A video published by the agency shows the woman, whose face was obscured with a pulled-down white hat, being arrested, handcuffed and escorted to a car by an FSB security agency.
Russian officials have revealed little. The Financial Times, citing Khavana’s lawyer and social media accounts, said she studied in Yekaterinburg before moving to the U.S., where she became a citizen in 2021 and had worked as a spa manager in Beverly Hills. News reports indicate the woman was first arrested in late January and charged with violating public order, with the treason charge coming this month. The practice is common in criminal cases like this in Russia. Officials have also revealed little information supporting the charge of treason or detailed the organization Karelina supposedly worked with. Treason, which includes espionage and providing support or intelligence to an entity working against the security interests of the Russian state, is a serious offense in Russia and punishable with a jail term of up to 20 years. New rules appear to allow for lifelong sentences for treason in some cases.
The FSB said a criminal case has been opened against the woman, who will be detained while this is carried out. Media outlets report the woman was denied bail by a court in Yekaterinburg, sometimes written as Ekaterinburg in English. The FT reported Khavana filed an appeal against her pre-trial detention on Monday.
Khavana is the latest in a series of Russian moves against U.S. nationals on suspected charges of treason. This includes Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested last year and denies charges of espionage, and U.S. marine veteran Paul Whelan, who was convicted of espionage in 2020 and is serving a sentence in a penal colony. Alsu Kurmasheva, a dual American-Russian journalist working as an editor for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), was also picked up by authorities charged with failing to register as a “foreign agent” in October and basketball star Brittney Griner was convicted of drug possession and smuggling for carrying cannabis oil. Griner was sentenced to years in a remote penal colony and ultimately repatriated in a trade for arms dealer Viktor Bout, known as the “Merchant of Death.” Russian leader Vladimir Putin is reportedly considering a swap deal to free Gershkovich. Conditions in Russia’s remote penal colonies, such as the one where opposition politician Aleksei Navalny is believed to have died, are notoriously brutal and tough on the health and wellbeing of inmates.