Latest news with #Petrova
Boston Globe
23-07-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
‘Like a horror': A Harvard scientist studied the mysteries of aging. Now her future is in peril.
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Petrova's future has hung in the balance since Feb. 16, Advertisement The desk of Kseniia Petrova,at Harvard in Boston on April 3. LUCY LU/NYT Those actions have sent chills through the scientific community at Harvard and in her home country of Russia, where her family and former research colleagues say they fear she will be persecuted for her past political activism. Advertisement 'Every day it was like a horror,' said Petrova's mother, Irina Petrova, from their home near Moscow, in the family's first public comments since her ordeal began. 'Something is wrong with this world if such a thing is possible.' Petrova was r To many, both in the US and in Russia, Petrova's case has come to symbolize President Trump's hard-line stance on immigration and his sharply expanded 'The rule of law does not have a carveout for educated individuals with pedigree,' US Attorney Leah B. Foley Now, as her legal case drags into its sixth month, Petrova spends most of her days confined to a small apartment near Fenway Park, where she leads a hermit-like existence, reading biology textbooks and playing the guitar, her friends and lab partners say. She did not respond to multiple requests for an interview. Inside the fifth-floor Harvard Medical School lab where she worked, Petrova's prolonged absence is strongly felt. Advertisement Petrova (right) and Cora Anderson, a research assistant, dressed up for a Halloween party in 2023 at the Harvard Medical School laboratory where they work. Cora Anderson Her colleagues described Petrova as a 'super nerd,' who once dressed up as a dead cell for Halloween and is so committed to her research that she sometimes collapsed on a couch after working through the night. A specialist in bioinformatics, a field that uses computer tools and statistics to analyze large sets of biological data, Petrova was a core member of a team working to turn back the clock on aging cells and develop treatments for age-related diseases. The laboratory, named after its founder and director, Petrova proved to be a quick and versatile learner, immersing herself not only in bioinformatics but also in experiments involving tissue samples, despite having little background in biology, Kirschner said. 'She really wanted to be a full scientist, which I fully agree with,' Kirschner said. Harvard Medical School's 'frog palace' at the college in Boston on April 3. LUCY LU/NYT Like much of biology, the Kirschner laboratory is fixated on frogs — it even has a giant tank known as the 'frog palace' — because the amphibians share many of the same genes and biological processes as humans. The goal was to develop a comprehensive map of embryonic frog cells, which the researchers hoped would be useful for scientists worldwide. Petrova's determination to pursue her interest in the natural world began early in life and was nurtured by her scientific-minded parents. Advertisement She grew up in Moscow as the second child of two engineers. Her father, Dmitry Petrov, is a computer engineer and her mother, Irina, a specialist in radio antennas. Speaking from their summer home in Kuchino, a village in a forested area west of Moscow, Petrova's parents described their daughter as an adventurous, free-spirited girl and gifted musician. Photos and videoes shared by her family show her playing the flute and Kseniia Petrova (left) with her parents, Dmitry and Irina, at their home in Kuchimo, Russia. A Harvard Medical School scientist, Petrova, now 31, faces possible deportation to Russia for attempting to bring undeclared biological samples into the country. Vladimir Mazin The family's log cabin-style summer home in the forest was a refuge for Petrova to nurture her creativity, her parents said. Friends and scientists would gather at their home in the woods, often discussing books and playing music until late at night, her parents said. Sometimes she was so immersed in her studies that she would bring her laptop or book outside and read on a tree stump while her family foraged for mushrooms or berries, recalled Vladimir Mazin, a scientist and longtime family friend. In a sign of her early resolve, Petrova decided at age 13 that she would transfer from a focus on English studies to biology and chemistry. She completed the paperwork herself and switched programs without consulting her parents. 'Kseniia was a very determined child. She would make a decision and stand by it at a very early age,' Mazin said. Petrova, as a child, carried a log through the woods near their home in Kuchimo, Russia. Dmitry Petrov Petrova's interest in politics long preceded the invasion of Ukraine, her parents said. In 2011, while she was still a teenager, Petrova and her older brother became official election observers on a commission tasked with certifying the local results of Russia's parliamentary election. The 2011 election was marred by Advertisement Then, on the day after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Petrova and her friends joined protesters on the streets of Moscow. The following day, Petrova protested again and was arrested, charged with an administrative offense, and released, her parents said. That incident, her parents said, made it difficult for her to find a job in scientific research in Russia and contributed to her decision to leave the country for a job at Harvard. After graduating in 2022 from the prestigious an important step to identifying and treating hereditary diseases. But suggested that she rethink her outspoken support of the opposition movement to Putin so she could get through the security clearance process, Severinov said. When she refused, Severinov brought Petrova on as a consultant rather than an employee. Advertisement 'I would say it was partly naivete, but it was also about her being a principled person,' Severinov said. 'There's an irony to the fact that Kseniia is someone who suffered here [in Russia] because of her political views, and now she's suffering where she's presumably on the good side. It turns out this is all like [the novel] '1984.'' Petrova's family and colleagues are now worried for her future, which looks precarious, given the nature of her alleged offense and her history of political activism in Russia. After stopping Petrova, a federal customs officer at Logan reviewed her phone and uncovered a series of text messages suggesting Petrova knew she was supposed to declare biological material when entering the United States — and then misled authorities, according to While sitting on the tarmac, Petrova fired back in a text, 'No plan yet. I won't be able to swallow them,' according to the criminal complaint. A container of frog embryos in the Kirschner Lab at Harvard Medical School in Boston on April 3. LUCY LU/NYT When Petrova was questioned by the customs official, she denied carrying any biological material in her luggage and said she didn't know she was supposed to declare the frog embryos, prosecutors allege. Yet Petrova's attorneys maintain there was no legal basis for detaining and charging her, arguing the frog eggs in her luggage were not biological material as classified In interviews, four immigration law experts Yet if she is deported back to Russia, several immigration experts said, it is highly likely she would be arrested and imprisoned for her outspoken opposition to Putin's policies. 'There is no worse place that [Petrova] could go than Russia,' said Inside his lab office, decorated with framed images of frogs, Kirschner looked crestfallen as he discussed the loss of one of his star researchers. He recalled how, decades ago, he brought intact live frogs from Switzerland through US customs at an airport with little hassle. 'I definitely feel emotional about this,' Kirschner said. 'It makes me realize that, with all these changes, that we're moving toward more of a police state.' Petrova left federal court in Boston on June 12. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff Petrova's parents said they talk to their daughter via video feed two or three times a week, and remain anxious about her fate if she is deported to Russia. 'We have brutal repressions in this country,' said her father, looking downcast. 'We don't know if they will forget about [Kseniia] or they will brutally put her to trial.' He added, 'In Russia, authorities act as they wish.' On June 12, Petrova was released from ICE custody, emerging from the front doors of the Boston courthouse wearing a T-shirt that said 'Hakunka matata,' or 'no worries.' Since then, Petrova has taken up several new hobbies, her parents and friends said, including wood etching and baking bread. She's also planted more vegetable seeds, which have begun to sprout around her apartment. Chris Serres can be reached at
Novaya Gazeta Europe
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Novaya Gazeta Europe
Ripple effect. The arrest of Russian scientist Ksenia Petrova in the US has sent shockwaves through the scientific community — Novaya Gazeta Europe
Ksenia Petrova, a 31-year-old Russian scientist, faces a potential prison sentence of 20 years for taking a box of frog embryo samples into the country. Petrova was returning from a vacation in France when US agents arrested her for failing to declare the samples. She has been indicted by a federal grand jury on three criminal counts, including criminal smuggling and making false statements. Petrova fled Russia after protesting the war in Ukraine in 2022, to pursue her dream of being a scientist. If she were to be deported to Russia, as President Donald Trump's administration has threatened to do, Petrova says her life would be in danger. The case has rattled foreign scientists in the US. Many are now afraid to carry research samples from abroad and some are wiping their phones at the border, fearful that an innocent mistake might result in criminal charges, or worse. A passion for science Before moving to the US, Petrova studied in Moscow. A close friend of Petrova's family told The New York Times (NYT) that she was a 'passionate scientist' and 'one of those people who are truly interested in obtaining new knowledge'. Even on vacation, the family friend recalled, Petrova brought her laptop with her to meals to work. At the onset of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Petrova joined the street protests in Moscow. She was also openly critical on social media, posting multiple links online to anti-war videos and a petition calling on Vladimir Putin to resign. She left Russia that year, she told the NYT, because she knew that if she wanted to be a scientist, she had to leave. 'I think in each country, scientists are opposed to autocratic government,' she said. Petrova brought her highly sought-after skills in biology and computer science to Harvard Medical School, where her research focused on cell development and fighting the effects of cellular damage due to ageing. Petrova and her lawyers outside court, Boston, 12 June 2025. Photo: Leah Willingham / AP Photo / Scanpix / LETA Border chaos On 16 February, Petrova flew into Boston's Logan International Airport. Upon her arrival, Customs and Border Protection officers pulled her aside into a secondary screening area. They found a box with clawed frogs' embryos in her bag, which she had not declared. She had brought the samples at the request of her boss, Leon Peshkin. Peshkin collaborates with a laboratory in Paris, where scientists have developed a method for obtaining ultra-thin slices of frog embryos, using a method the Harvard researchers hadn't mastered; obtaining the samples, Peshkin told the NYT, would significantly speed up their work. Speaking with Novaya Europe, Peshkin said that the Paris laboratory's method had not been published in any scientific journal. Their French colleagues had tried to mail samples of embryos on multiple occasions, but they had thawed out en route and were then too damaged to be of any use. American investigators say Petrova failed to disclose the embryos and had lied to investigators about it. Later, Petrova admitted to her mistake and said that she didn't know whether they had to be declared. The criminal case against Petrova is largely based on text messages that a customs officer found on her phone. Petrova made clear that she would face imprisonment if she returned to Russia. According to the US Department of Justice, the correspondence shows that Petrova had discussed whether or not to declare the embryos with a colleague. The colleague told her that the embryos had to be declared. Petrova's colleague asked her how she expected to get through customs, and, according to court records, she joked: 'No plan yet. I won't be able to swallow them.' Petrova is facing up to 20 years in prison. Already, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) revoked her visa and initiated deportation proceedings against her. Petrova made clear that she would face imprisonment if she returned to Russia. But ICE continued shuffling Petrova through the US detention system — first in Vermont and then in Louisiana, where she was held alongside about 90 other detainees, most of them undocumented immigrants from Central and South America. As Petrova awaited her hearings, she read books on evolution, cell development, and meiosis. In June, after almost four months in ICE custody, Petrova was released on bail. Two weeks later, a federal grand jury in Boston indicted her with one count of concealment of a material fact and one count of false statement. If found guilty of those charges, she could face an additional five years in prison. Petrova is now awaiting trial in Boston. Novaya Europe spoke to Petrova's lawyer Grigory Romanovsky, who believes the charges are tinged by politics. 'Smuggling usually means a person has either knowingly imported a proscribed item, such as drugs, or has tried to evade customs duties. Neither applies in Ksenia's case. Even if we accept that she technically violated the rules by not declaring research samples, the maximum penalty should be a fine similar to one you'd get for not declaring an apple in your luggage. Launching a criminal case several months later, immediately after a federal court admitted that the customs officer had acted improperly, doesn't make sense,' he said. The devil is in the details Allegations that Petrova transported frog embryos to the US are misleading, the biotechnologist and virologist Michael West, who testified in Petrova's defence in court, told Novaya Europe. 'In the same way shoe leather shouldn't be labelled a 'cow' and a paperback book shouldn't be considered a 'tree', the samples Ms Petrova was bringing to Harvard for critically important medical research clearly in the interest of the people of the US and indeed the world, were inert, chemically inactivated samples, properly prepared to be safely transported and viewed on microscope slides in an effort to discover causes of ageing and age-related disease,' he said. The smuggling charge does not withstand scrutiny, West's colleague, Professor Lev Yampolsky, who attended the preliminary hearing in Petrova's case, agrees. 'Smuggling entails either an intention to sell the goods, which wasn't the case here, or bringing in a product that requires a special permit. But no federal agency regulating the import of biomaterials requires permission for anyone to import frog embryos,' he told Novaya Europe. With even serious declaration errors, the punishment is usually a fine of about $500 (€430). Harvard graduates leave a graduation ceremony in support of students who were unable to graduate due to participating in pro-Palestinian protests, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 23 May 2024. Photo: Brian Snyder / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA The anti-Harvard crusade The Trump administration has exerted significant pressure on American universities in recent months. The government has made extraordinary demands of Harvard that go against the university's commitment to academic independence. The Trump administration wants Harvard to implement reforms, supposedly aimed at combating anti-Semitism, under government supervision and it wants to change Harvard's admissions policy. The university has resisted, and stands to lose over $2 billion (€1.7 billion) in government funding. Yampolsky believes the case against Petrova is just another way to exert pressure on Harvard. 'Ksenia's case fits clearly into a more global crusade against universities and science, which is already leading to an outflow of talent from the US.' 'I don't know if this is due to the open warfare between the Trump administration and Harvard. Petrova was detained in February, before that conflict was public. Perhaps customs officials had received instructions to inspect the luggage of Harvard employees? It could be a coincidence, but I am personally in no doubt that it's all connected,' he said. The withholding of federal grants will cripple the university's medical research, which is a global hub of innovation. West said that such a loss was unjustifiable, because delays in research and development would almost certainly lead to unnecessary human suffering and death. Romanovsky believes the Trump administration's aggressive stance is most likely connected with a broader war against Harvard and the scientific community as a whole. 'Ksenia's case fits clearly into a more global crusade against universities and science, which is already leading to an outflow of talent from the US,' he said. The arrivals area at Logan International Airport, Boston, Massachusetts, 30 January 2017. Photo: Brian Snyder / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA Imprisoning Einstein The news of Petrova's case has caused alarm amongst the vast community of overseas scientists living in the US. Panic and fear of persecution are widespread. Work at the Harvard laboratory has stalled, Peshkin told the NYT. He says that when he asked colleagues to support Petrova, many admitted that they were afraid to, because they are also in the country on temporary visas. Yampolsky said that scientists have always brought biological materials into the US: sometimes it requires permission and sometimes it doesn't. But 'now, of course, no one will,' he said. He had not heard of cases of people's phones being checked at the border, let alone criminal cases being opened on the basis of what they found. 'There should be anger that the US is ignorant of the role people such as Ksenia Petrova play in building a better tomorrow.' 'It's like Russia. But that never used to happen in America! Even if customs officers do have the right to inspect a device and the files on it, they don't,' Yampolsky said. Now, 'many people, especially non-US citizens, thoroughly wipe their phones before entering the country,' he said. Prosecuting Petrova goes against the interests of the American people, West told Novaya Europe, calling it 'foolish and shameful to imprison young medical researchers aspiring to conquer some of the most devastating of human diseases'. In the US, immigrants have been integral to the country's scientific and technological innovation; many have received Nobel Prizes for their work, West noted. 'Just as there would have been outrage at the imprisonment of Albert Einstein,' West said, 'there should be anger that the US is ignorant of the role people such as Ksenia Petrova play in building a better tomorrow.'
The Hill
26-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Harvard scientist accused of frog embryo smuggling faces new charges
Harvard University researcher Kseniia Petrova is facing a pair of additional charges two weeks after a judge released her from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention. In a court filing Wednesday, the federal government charged Petrova with one count of concealment of a material fact and one count of false statement, on top of the one count of smuggling goods she already faced after she was detained by ICE in February for allegedly smuggling frog embryos into the country. The Russian-born scientist saw her J-1 nonimmigrant visa revoked and faced deportation back to Russia, which she said she fears due to her opposition to the war in Ukraine. U.S. District Judge Christina Reiss recently ruled Petrova is not a flight risk and allowed her to be released while her proceedings move forward. 'We are gratified that today's hearing gave us the opportunity to present clear and convincing evidence that Kseniia Petrova was not carrying anything dangerous or unlawful, and that customs officers at Logan International Airport had no legal authority to revoke her visa or detain her,' said Gregory Romanovsky, Petrova's attorney. Petrova has said she did not realize the items in her bag needed to be declared, while the federal government claims she purposely concealed the alleged frog embryos. 'A subsequent K9 inspection uncovered undeclared petri dishes, containers of unknown substances, and loose vials of embryonic frog cells, all without proper permits,' a Homeland Security spokesperson said in the statement. 'Messages found on her phone revealed she planned to smuggle the materials through customs without declaring them.'
NBC News
26-06-2025
- NBC News
Harvard researcher accused of smuggling frog embryos faces additional charges
BOSTON — A Harvard University researcher accused of smuggling clawed frog embryos into the United States was indicted Wednesday on additional charges. Kseniia Petrova, a Russian-born scientist conducting cancer research for Harvard Medical School, was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in Boston on one count of concealment of a material fact, one count of false statement and one count of smuggling goods into the United States. She had been charged with the smuggling in May. Despite the additional charges, Petrova will remain on pretrial release. A lawyer for Petrova could not be reached for comment. She was returning from a vacation from France in February when she was questioned by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at Boston Logan International Airport. Petrova, 30, had stopped at a lab specializing in splicing superfine sections of frog embryos and obtained a package of samples for research. Federal officials on the social media website X accused her of lying about "carrying substances" into the country and alleged that she planned to smuggle the embryos through customs without declaring them. She told The Associated Press in an interview in April that she did not realize the items needed to be declared and was not trying to sneak anything into the country. Petrova was told her visa was being canceled and detained by immigration officials in Vermont after her initial arrest. She filed a petition seeking her release and was briefly sent to an ICE facility in Louisiana, after which a judge ruled the immigration officers' actions were unlawful. In May, she was charged with one count of smuggling. If convicted of the smuggling charge, Petrova faces a sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. She also faces a sentence of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on the charges of concealment of material fact and false statements.
MTV Lebanon
26-06-2025
- Politics
- MTV Lebanon
Harvard scientist accused of smuggling frog embryos indicted on new charges
A Russian-born scientist at Harvard University accused of smuggling frog embryos into the United States was indicted on Wednesday on additional charges nearly two weeks after her lawyers secured her release from US custody. Federal prosecutors in Boston said a grand jury returned an indictment, opens new tab charging Kseniia Petrova, 30, with one count of concealment of a material fact, one count of false statement and one count of smuggling goods into the United States. Prosecutors had charged her in May only with smuggling. The two new charges add to her criminal exposure and were filed after her lawyers last week urged a magistrate judge to dismiss the initial criminal complaint. Petrova's lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Prosecutors secured the indictment after Petrova was granted bail on June 12. She had been detained for months after U.S. immigration authorities took her into custody on February 16 at the airport in Boston upon her return from a trip to France. Her supporters said she was detained as part of the practice by President Donald Trump's administration of targeting international students and academics for visa revocations and detention as part of his hardline immigration agenda. Prosecutors said US Customs and Border Protection agents stopped Petrova, who works at Harvard Medical School, after her checked duffle bag was flagged for inspection, revealing the frog embryos. Petrova has said her boss asked her to bring back frog embryo samples for experiments. But prosecutors said the embryos constituted biological material that should have been declared to customs officials at the port of first arrival. Prosecutors said that when she was approached by law enforcement, Petrova initially denied carrying any biological material in her baggage, and later claimed to be unsure she was required to declare the embryos when entering the United States. But prosecutors said one of Petrova's colleagues had texted saying that she needed to make sure she got permission to bring samples back. Petrova's visa was then canceled and immigration officials took her into custody with the intent of deporting her back to Russia, a prospect Petrova has said she feared after protesting Russia's war in Ukraine.
