Shocking Injustice? Russian Ballerina Ksenia Karelina Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison for Donating £40 to Charity—Is This the Price of Compassion?Hieuuk
A woman has been jailed in Russia for 12 years after she gave £40 to a charity supporting Ukraine.
US-Russia citizen Ksenia Karelina was accused of treason when she was arrested in Yekaterinburg, in southwestern Russia, in February.
Investigators searched her mobile phone and found that she made a $51.80 (£40) donation to Razom, a charity that provides aid to Ukraine, on the first day of Russia’s invasion.
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The 33-year-old admitted the charge at a closed trial in the city earlier this month, according to Russian news agencies.
On Thursday, Karelina appeared in court in a white sweatshirt and blue jeans, sitting calmly in a glass courtroom cage, before she received her sentence.
Her case was heard by the same court that convicted Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich of espionage in July.
At one point she could be seen speaking to her lawyer.
Karelina, an amateur ballerina, was born in Russia but moved to the US in 2012 and became a citizen in 2021. She had moved to Los Angeles, where she worked in a spa.
She had been back in Russia visiting family at the start of the year when she was arrested, according to rights group The First Department. Image: Pic: AP
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed she had proactively collected the money in the interests of one of the Ukrainian organisations before it jailed her.
It claimed the donation was “used to purchase tactical medical supplies, equipment, weapons and ammunition for the Ukrainian armed forces”.
The charity has denied it provides any military support to Kyiv.
Karelina was not included in the recent major prisoner swap between Russia and the West that freed Mr Gershkovich, but her lawyer Mikhail Mushailov has said she hoped to be included in a possible future exchange.
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Vladimir Putin’s government has noticeably cracked down on dissent and criticism of the war since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Karelina is among a group of Americans still held in Russia on a variety of charges.
They include Gordon Black, a soldier sentenced to three years and nine months in June for assaulting and stealing from his Russian girlfriend, and Marc Fogel, a former teacher serving a 14-year sentence after being caught with marijuana that he said he used to treat pain.
