A Russian court has sentenced amateur ballerina Ksenia Karelina to 12 years in prison for treason after she donated $51 (£39) to a charity supporting Ukraine.
Karelina, who holds dual American and Russian citizenship, pleaded guilty last week following a trial conducted behind closed doors.
Karelina had been living in Los Angeles and became a U.S. citizen in 2021. She was arrested during a family visit in January in Yekaterinburg, a city located about 1,600km (1,000 miles) east of Moscow.
Prosecutors had originally sought a 15-year prison sentence. The Yekaterinburg court found her guilty of high treason and sentenced her to serve time in a general regime penal colony.
The charges against Karelina were brought by Russia’s FSB security service, which accused her of raising funds for a Ukrainian organisation that supplies arms to the Ukrainian military.
The charity in question, Razom, expressed shock and dismay upon learning of Karelina’s arrest.
Her trial began in June in the same court where Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was tried for espionage. Gershkovich was recently freed in a major prisoner exchange between the U.S., Russia, and other countries.
Karelina’s boyfriend, boxer Chris van Heerden, described the trial as distressing and anxiety-inducing.
“I could not for the life of me put myself in her shoes and just even imagine what she is going through,” he said last week.
NANCY MBAMALU
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