L.A. woman sentenced to 12 years in Russian prison over $51 donation to Ukraine

A U.S.-Russian dual citizen from Los Angeles was convicted Thursday of treason in a Russian court and sentenced to 12 years in prison on charges stemming from a $51 donation to a charity aiding Ukraine .

Ksenia Karelina , an amateur ballerina who worked at a skin care clinic in Beverly Hills before her arrest, had been taken into custody while visiting her parents in Yekaterinburg, Russia, in January, according to her family and friends.

Speaking at a news conference Thursday, White House national security spokesman John F. Kirby called the sentence “vindictive cruelty,” saying it proved “there’s no real system of justice coming out of Moscow. ... We’re talking about 50 bucks to try to alleviate the suffering of the people of Ukraine, and to call that treason is just absolutely ludicrous.”

Kirby said U.S. officials would continue to try to gain access to Karelina and work for her release.

“How do I accept this?” Chris Van Heerden, Karelina’s boyfriend, who lived with her in West L.A., said Thursday as he held back tears in an interview. “I cannot accept this. I refuse to accept it. It’s difficult to process.”

Russian news reports said Karelina, 33, pleaded guilty in a closed trial last week. She also goes by the last name Khavana, her married name before a divorce.

A Russian civil rights group that tracks detentions, Perviy Otdel , or First Department, says the charges stem from $51.80 Karelina donated while living in the U.S. to the New York-based group Razom for Ukraine , or Together for Ukraine. The New York-based organization works on issues that include disaster relief and humanitarian aid.

Russia’s Federal Security Service said when she was arrested that Karelina “proactively collected money in the interests of one of the Ukrainian organizations, which was subsequently used to purchase tactical medical supplies, equipment, weapons, and ammunition for the Ukrainian armed forces.”

The trial took place in Yekaterinburg, in the Ural Mountain city nearly a thousand miles east of Moscow. Her attorney, Mikhail Mushailov, said he planned to appeal.

“She admitted guilt in part in transferring the funds, but did not admit her intent to transfer the funds to the organizations where they were most likely received,” he said.

“She did not assume that the funds she transferred would be used for anti-Russian actions,” he said, according to the Interfax news agency.

Since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has sharply cracked down on dissent and has passed laws that criminalize criticism of the operation in Ukraine or the Russian military. Concern has risen that Russia is targeting U.S. nationals for arrest.

On Aug. 1, Russia and the U.S. held the largest prisoner exchange since the end of the Cold War. Included in the swap were Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and American corporate security executive Paul Whelan, both of whom were convicted of espionage charges that they denied, and U.S.-Russian dual national Alsu Kurmasheva, a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist sentenced to 6½ years for spreading “false information” about the Russian military.

Russian authorities typically do not engage in negotiations over prisoner swaps until after a trial.

During a news conference Thursday, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said that “we strongly condemn the Kremlin’s escalating domestic repression” and that “we remain deeply focused and engaged.” Citing privacy when speaking of the case, he did not mention Karelina by name.

“Donating to a nonprofit organization, ... supporting the Ukrainian cause, supporting the Ukrainian people as they defend themselves against Russian aggression, and especially doing so on American soil, is not a crime,” he added. “Russia has a track record of, when it comes to dual nationals, not recognizing their American citizen status and, frankly, being uncooperative when it comes to things like meeting their obligations under consular conventions,” Patel said.

The U.S. government has not given Karelina the formal designation of being “wrongfully detained,” which family and friends in Los Angeles have requested.

Karelina arrived in Russia on Jan. 2 to visit family in Yekaterinburg, the city of 1.5 million where she grew up. Friends and family who had been in touch with her before her arrest said Russian authorities confiscated her phone when she arrived.

That is possibly how Russian officials gained access to her financial transactions to determine that she made the donation.

She was then allowed to visit her family and instructed to not travel outside the local area.

According to family and friends, Russian authorities arrested Karelina on Jan. 27, when she traveled to meet Russian officials to retrieve her phone. State media first reported her detention Feb. 20 after the Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, announced the arrest.

Van Heerden said he has pleaded with the U.S. government for Karelina to be part of a future prisoner swap.

“I received a letter from her a week and a half ago and she was hopeful because she knew about the swap that happened a few weeks ago,” he said.

“I am hopeful we will have her back before the year’s over. I’m begging America to not let her down.”

Kaleem reported from Los Angeles and Wilkinson from Washington. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times .