LONDON (Reuters) – A Russian-American woman detained in Russia on a treason charge potentially resulting in up to 20 years in prison reassured her boyfriend that it was safe before traveling to visit relatives in Yekaterinburg, according to her former mother-in-law.
Ksenia Karelina, a 32-year-old resident of Los Angeles, had her appeal rejected by a Russian court on Thursday. She was detained by the FSB security service on suspicion of raising funds for Ukraine’s armed forces.
Despite her lawyer’s request to replace her detention with house arrest, the court decided against it, as reported by state news agency RIA.
The U.S. embassy in Moscow acknowledged the reports but refrained from providing further commentary due to privacy regulations, a spokesperson informed Reuters.
A Russian lawyers’ group, Pervy Otdel, disclosed that Karelina had made a donation of just over $50 from her U.S. bank account to a charity supporting Ukraine on the same day Russia initiated its military operation in Ukraine.
According to Karelina’s former mother-in-law, Eleonora Srebroski, Karelina had made a small contribution to Razom for Ukraine, a nonprofit based in New York, focusing on providing aid to the country.
Razom previously expressed its dismay over Karelina’s arrest, emphasizing its commitment to humanitarian aid, disaster relief, education, and advocacy efforts.
Srebroski recounted how Karelina, who became a U.S. citizen in 2021, had decided to visit Yekaterinburg in January after her boyfriend surprised her with a plane ticket while they were on vacation in Turkey.
“I am Russian, I love Russia, there is nothing wrong in Yekaterinburg, it’s safe there,” Karelina assured her boyfriend, according to Srebroski.
Describing Karelina as caring, sweet, and beautiful on the inside, Srebroski mentioned that Karelina arrived in the United States in 2012 through a work-study program, where she eventually met and married Srebroski’s son in 2013.
Following their split a few years later, Karelina relocated to California to pursue her passion for ballet and enjoy the warmer climate, as confirmed by her ex-husband, Yevgeny Khavana.
Ciel Spa, Karelina’s current employer in Beverly Hills, California, advocated for her release in an Instagram post, referring to her as an aesthetician and declaring, “to know Ksenia is to love her.”
Srebroski shared that Karelina had regularly visited Russia to see her family, including her grandparents and a younger sister, but had stopped traveling there after January 2021 due to the costly and burdensome Western-imposed sanctions affecting flights to Russia.
Expressing shock at Karelina’s arrest, Khavana emphasized that she had no strong political affiliations and was against violence on either side of the conflict.
Karelina’s VKontakte profile, showcasing photos of her enjoying time at the beach and on trips with friends, did not include any political content.
“I don’t know why she went back,” Srebroski pondered. “Russian authorities are harming their own people.”
(Reporting and writing by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
