Twenty years in prison for a $50 donation? A Russian-American woman is currently facing the risk of high treason charges while incarcerated in Yekaterinburg, east of the Ural mountains. The arrest of Ksenia Karelina (Ksenia Khavana since her marriage and move to the US in 2021) was made public on February 20 by the FSB, the Russian security services, but the 33-year-old woman has been in custody since January 27.
In its press release, accompanied by a short video showing her handcuffed, the FSB refers to "fund-raising for the Ukrainian armed forces," along with the fact that she "participated on several occasions, on US soil, in public actions in favor of the Kyiv regime." These accusations seem to constitute high treason, a crime punishable by 12 to 20 years in prison.
Two separate sources – the human rights organization Perviy Otdel and the editor-in-chief of Republic Media, Dmitry Kolezev – provide a more detailed and similar account of the chronology of events and the charges against Karelina.
The woman, a beauty salon employee in Los Angeles, landed in Ekaterinburg on January 17 to visit her parents and 90-year-old grandmother. At the airport, customs officials allegedly searched her phone and discovered traces of a bank transfer, made on February 24, 2022, the first day of the invasion of Ukraine, from her American bank account.
Its recipient, for a total of $51.80 (€48) was the Razom for Ukraine fund, which helps Ukrainian civilians. Its only military-oriented program is the purchase of medical kits for nurses on the front line.
Karelina was summoned to the police station the following day, on spurious administrative grounds, and immediately sentenced to 14 days of imprisonment, supposedly for "uttering swear words in public." This is a classic method used by the police, enabling them to quietly prepare a more important case, with their victim in hand.
At the end of the two-week sentence, the young Russian-American woman was charged with high treason, a charge that has become commonplace in recent years. The severity of the charges is indicative of an increasingly repressive climate in Russia. Long prison sentences, previously reserved for the most prominent opposition figures, are now being handed down to unknown individuals for simple posts on social media.
This arrest is also a signal for the hundreds of thousands of Russian citizens living abroad, who are experiencing difficulties with the authorities. Under a law passed at the end of January, those convicted of various offenses, including "discrediting the army," may have their property and income in Russia confiscated.
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