Latest news with #Karelina
Time of India
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Who is Ksenia Karelina? American ballerina jailed in Russia over $52 donation, freed in Trump-led swap
, who was held in a Russian prison for over a year on treason charges, met President Donald Trump following her return to the United States. Her case drew widespread condemnation from human rights groups and US officials, who labelled the charges 'absolutely ludicrous. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now ' Karelina, a 32-year-old dual US-Russian citizen, was arrested in Yekaterinburg in February 2024 after reportedly donating just over $50 to a US-based charity that supported Ukraine. The Russian authorities accused her of aiding a foreign country against Russia's interests—a charge that led to her conviction for treason. Her release came as part of a carefully brokered exchange involving Arthur Petrov, a Russian-German man who had been detained in the US for attempting to smuggle restricted microelectronics to Russia. The swap took place in Abu Dhabi and included rare direct coordination between Russian and American intelligence and diplomatic services. President Trump confirmed her release and said, 'They released the young ballerina and she is now out, and that was good. So we appreciate that.' He later met with Karelina, an encounter that symbolised the second successful prisoner swap since Trump returned to office and resumed diplomatic engagement with Moscow. Her fiancé, professional boxer Chris van Heerden, expressed relief, saying she had 'endured a nightmare for 15 months.' He thanked Trump, the CIA, and figures like UFC president Dana White, who reportedly raised the case with the president directly. CIA Director John Ratcliffe credited US intelligence officers for their behind-the-scenes efforts, highlighting the importance of communication channels between Washington and Moscow. Who is Ksenia Karelina? Ksenia Karelina is a 32-year-old dual citizen of the United States and Russia. She was born in Russia but had been living in Los Angeles, where she worked in the beauty industry. Before moving to the US, she was a professional ballerina and lived in Maryland for some time. In early 2024, she travelled to Russia to visit her family and was arrested by Russian authorities. She was charged with treason after allegedly donating about $52 to a US-based charity that supported Ukraine. Russian officials claimed the donation amounted to support for the Ukrainian military, though human rights groups said the charge was based solely on that one donation. The US condemned the charges as politically driven and called the accusations 'absolutely ludicrous.' Karelina's fiancé, boxer Chris van Heerden, thanked President Trump and his team for helping to bring her home. Van Heerden described her ordeal as a '15-month nightmare' and said their dog, Boots, was also waiting for her. Karelina had been held in Yekaterinburg, a Russian city known for detaining foreign nationals. Her release came as part of a prisoner swap in which she was exchanged for Arthur Petrov, a Russian-German man convicted of smuggling in the US.
Daily Mail
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Donald Trump meets ballerina Ksenia Karelina who he helped free from Russian hellhole jail in prisoner swap
President Donald Trump appeared delighted by a ballerina whom he helped free from a Russian prison in the pair's first meeting. Video posted online shows the commander-in-chief shaking hands with Ksenia Karelina inside the Oval Office on Monday, just weeks after the 33-year-old returned to American soil. As she offered her thanks, the president could be heard telling the dancer: 'Congratulations. That's very nice, that's a great honor.' He then joked with her family and her fiancée, professional boxer Chris van Heerden, that he now understands why they fought so hard for her return. Turning his attention back to Karelina, Trump asked her how long she was left languishing in the Russian prison - to which she replies 15 months. 'That's a long time,' Trump acknowledges. In another clip, Karelina could be seen thanking the president for securing her release. The ballerina was arrested while visiting her family in Yekaterinburg in February 2024, when Russian authorities discovered she donated $51 to the Ukrainian aid group Razom - and accused her of supporting the Ukrainian army. She was sentenced to spend 12 years in a penal colony, but was freed in a prisoner swap last month. It was negotiated between the intelligence agencies of Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Trump, and saw Karelina freed in exchange for Russian national German Arthur Petrov, who was arrested in Cyprus in August 2023 on US charges of smuggling sensitive microelectronics to Russia. Heartwarming photos from her return showed Karelina embracing her fiancé at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland and walking away with a smile on her face and flowers in her hands. Petrov, meanwhile, was extradited to the US and was later released in Abu Dhabi. Following her return, van Heerden praised Trump for his efforts to bring his fiancé home. 'The old administration didn't do nothing for her. We're very thankful for President Trump and the new administration,' he told TMZ. The boxer recounted that there were 'a handful of people in the old administration that were amazing,' but he swiftly realized it would not be enough to bring his partner home. 'About eight months in we knew we were going to struggle with the Biden administration,' van Heerden said, adding that he had 'faith and belief that President Trump would bring her back.' Karelina also praised the president for his efforts, adding that she was not yet ready to speak publicly about her ordeal. 'I'm just really grateful to President Trump and the government for bringing me back and it just really feels good to be home,' she Donald Trump briefly met with ballerina Ksenia Karelina inside the Oval Office on Monday, weeks after she returned to the United States Trump was sworn in for a second term as POTUS in January, and his administration set to work negotiating the terms of Karelina's release in the months since. 'This young ballerina is out, and we appreciate that,' Trump said during a Cabinet meeting immediately following the revelation she'd made it home. CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who was reportedly involved in prisoner negotiations with FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov, was among those who greeted Karelina at the airport in Abu Dhabi. He, too, praised Trump for bringing the Los Angeles-based dancer home. 'Today, President Trump brought home another wrongfully detained American from Russia,' Ratcliffe told the Wall Street Journal. 'I'm proud of the CIA officers who worked tirelessly to support this effort, and we appreciate the Government of the United Arab Emirates for enabling the exchange. Now-ousted national security adviser Mike Waltz added that: 'The United States welcomes the return of American-Russian ballerina Ksenia Karelina.' 'President Trump and his administration continue to work around the clock to ensure Americans detained abroad are returned home to their families.' Karelina's release marks the second prisoner swap between the US and Russia since Donald Trump took office in January. Russia in February freed Marc Fogel, a schoolteacher and former employee of the US embassy in Moscow. Fogel had served three and a half years of a 14-year sentence for drug smuggling after being caught in possession of a small amount of marijuana. In exchange, Washington released Alexander Vinnik, a convicted Russian cybercriminal who had pleaded guilty in a US court to conspiring to launder money. But at least 10 other Americans remain behind bars in Russia on various charges, hoping that their government can secure their release. They include Stephen Hubbard, a 73-year-old native of Michigan jailed in October for nearly seven years on charges that he served as a mercenary in Ukraine. Hubbard had been living in the Ukrainian town of Izium and was arrested after Russian forces took control of the city in 2022. His relatives rejected claims that Hubbard served for Ukraine, pointing to his advanced age. He was designated in January as wrongfully detained. Gordon Black, an active duty US staff sergeant based in South Korea, was also detained last May in Russia's Far East on suspicion of stealing money from his Russian girlfriend. A court in June found Black guilty of stealing 10,000 roubles ($104) from the woman and threatening to kill her, sentencing him to three years and nine months in prison. Another American citizen, Joseph Tater, was sentenced to 15 days in jail last August for 'petty hooliganism' after he was alleged to have abused staff at a Moscow hotel, which he denied. He should have been released after serving the small sentence, but Russian news agencies say he is now being investigated on a more serious charge of assaulting a police officer, which carries up to five years in prison. A court in September denied his appeal to be released from pre-trial detention and he remains in custody. And, in one of the most high-profile cases, American citizen Eugene Spector - who was born in Russia and then moved to the US - was charged last August with espionage. He had served as chairman of the board of Medpolymerprom Group, a company specializing in cancer-curing drugs, state media said. Spector had pleaded guilty to helping bribe an assistant to an ex-Russian deputy prime minister. It was not clear how he pleaded to the espionage charge. Now, those prisoners hope Trump's efforts to renew diplomatic ties with Russia will see them freed in the coming months. 'The exchange shows the importance of keeping lines of communication open with Russia, despite the deep challenges in our bilateral relationship,' a CIA spokeswoman told the WSJ following Karelina's release. 'While we are disappointed that other Americans remain wrongfully detained in Russia, we see this exchange as a positive step and will continue to work for their release.'
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump meets with recently freed American ballerina in Oval Office
President Trump on Monday met in the Oval Office with an American ballerina who was released from a Russian prison earlier this year as part of an exchange. Trump spoke with Ksenia Karelina, a U.S.-Russian dual national who was detained last year on treason charges. The White House posted footage of the meeting, which was not opened up to members of the press. 'Congratulations. That's very nice. That's a great honor,' Trump can be heard telling Karelina. The president also asks how long Karelina was in prison. Karelina, a former ballet dancer, was arrested in February 2024 in Yekaterinburg and found guilty by a Russian court in August of treason for donating just north of $50 to a U.S.-based Ukrainian charity. She was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Karelina was released in exchange for Arthur Petrov, a dual Russian-German national. The State Department previously determined Karelina, also known by the surname Khavana, was wrongfully detained. She was arrested after going back to Russia to visit her family. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump's treatment of 2 Russian women highlights a flawed immigration policy
On Monday, President Donald Trump met with Russian-American Ksenia Karelina, a former ballerina who was arrested during a family trip to Russia last year for donating roughly $52 to support Ukrainian aid in 2022. She was later sentenced to 12 years in a Russian penal colony for 'high treason.' Of course, Karelina's return to the U.S. is itself major news. Last month, after UFC CEO Dana White discussed Karelina's plight with Trump, the Trump administration negotiated a prisoner swap in which Karelina was released in exchange for Arthur Petrov, a German-Russian national indicted last year for allegedly exporting sensitive U.S.-sourced microelectronics. The release of the 'young ballerina' was apparently important enough for Trump to involve the CIA — and ultimately resulted in the release of an alleged material supporter of the Russian military. That Karelina is no criminal and deserves to be back in Los Angeles, where she works as an aesthetician, is without question. But her much-heralded meeting with Trump makes me wonder why the administration isn't equally worked up about the liberty of another woman of Russian descent — one with a strikingly similar name. Kseniia Petrova, a Russian Harvard University scientist, has been stuck in a Louisiana immigration jail for more than two months now. And like Karelina, she is young (both women are in their early 30s) and has reportedly opposed Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Indeed, both women fell afoul of Russian authorities within days of each other: Karelina made her donation on Feb. 24, 2022, the day Russia began its full-scale invasion; Petrova called for Russian President Vladimir Putin's impeachment on her Facebook page on Feb. 27 and was arrested before she managed to escape to the country of Georgia and then the United States. Most importantly, neither has committed any crime under U.S. law. Yet while Trump has embraced Karelina, his administration has punished Petrova, a Russian national employed at Harvard on a J-1 visa. On Feb. 16, Petrova was detained upon returning to Boston from Paris and was later transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in Vermont and then Louisiana. Her alleged offense? Failing to disclose on a customs form that she was carrying 'samples of frog embryos she had carried from France at the request of her boss at Harvard' and purportedly lying about them, reported The New York Times. Petrova, in a statement provided by her legal team, denied providing any false information and took responsibility for not reviewing the requirements for customs paperwork. To the extent that the embryos were required to be disclosed — something her legal team has challenged — such a lack of disclosure is usually remedied by a $500 fine. Instead, the Trump administration has put her into deportation proceedings; Petrova, for her part, immediately claimed asylum, noting that if deported to Russia, she would face retribution for her political views. Since then, Petrova's immigration case has been moving slowly with no resolution expected until 2026, according to her lead lawyer, Gregory Romanovsky. In the meantime, however, she has filed a federal lawsuit in Vermont seeking her immediate release and what Romanovsky describes as a 'critical' hearing next week. And her lawyers believe they have powerful evidence and arguments for her release, including: a declaration from the head of her lab at Harvard, a scientist in his 80s, who attests that it would not have occurred to him to declare the embryos; an expert declaration from a former Customs and Border Patrol official confirming that, under applicable regulations, frog embryos would not count at 'biological material' that would need to be disclosed; and existing immigration law and regulations, which establish that customs disclosure failures — even if willful, which they maintain Petrova's was not — are not a sufficient basis on which to revoke a visa. Still, that begs the question of why Petrova was really detained, especially since a loss in federal court would mean many more months in immigration jail. Romanovsky believes the Trump administration is using immigration as a means to punish any alleged or perceived wrongdoing, however minor, 'because they can,' and said that despite public perception that the U.S. has lax immigration laws, in actuality, the Immigration and Nationality Act and related laws are 'very harsh.' 'The goal,' he alleged, 'is to discourage people from coming to this country' and to prompt them to leave on their own. The fact that the Trump administration can't appreciate the similarities between Petrova and Karelina underscores what we're seeing across the country: a chaotic and seemingly careless approach to immigration that only weakens our nation. This article was originally published on
The Hill
05-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Trump meets with recently freed American ballerina in Oval Office
President Trump on Monday met in the Oval Office with an American ballerina who was released from a Russian prison earlier this year as part of an exchange. Trump spoke with Ksenia Karelina, a U.S.-Russian dual national who was detained last year on treason charges. The White House posted footage of the meeting, which was not opened up to members of the press. 'Congratulations. That's very nice. That's a great honor,' Trump can be heard telling Karelina. The president also asks how long Karelina was in prison. Karelina, a former ballet dancer, was arrested in February 2024 in Yekaterinburg and found guilty by a Russian court in August of treason for donating just north of $50 to a U.S.-based Ukrainian charity. She was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Karelina was released in exchange for Arthur Petrov, a dual Russian-German national. The State Department previously determined Karelina, also known by the surname Khavana, was wrongfully detained. She was arrested after going back to Russia to visit her family.
