LA Ballerina Sentenced To 12 Years In Russian Prison Over $51 Donation

LOS ANGELES, CA — A Los Angeles woman was sentenced this week to 12 years in a Russian penal colony after pleading guilty to treason charges. Charges against the woman, a dual Russian-U.S. citizen, came after she donated money to a charity supporting Ukraine, the BBC reported.

Ksenia Karelina was arrested in the central Russian city of Yekaterinburg in February while she was in the country visiting family. She pled guilty to high treason after donating $51 to Razom, a charity that supports Ukraine. Russian prosectors, who sought a 15-year sentence as part of the closed-door trial, accused Karelina of collecting money that was used to purchase tactical supplies for the Ukrainian army, the BBC reported.

Karelina obtained U.S. citizenship in 2021 when she married an American. A ballet dancer, Karelina's social media pages indicate she received her dance training at the S.P. Diaghilev school in Yekaterinburg in Russia, graduated from Ural Federal University then began dancing in Baltimore in 2014.

According to her LinkedIn page, she has been a manager at Ciel Spa Beverly Hills at the SLS Hotel since 2019.

Karelina's plea comes after Russia and the West carried out the largest prisoner exchange since the Cold War, where 24 people jailed in seven different countries were exchanged.

Karelina's boyfriend, boxer Chris van Heerden, said he on Thursday he was angry with the State Department.

"There was a prisoner swap two weeks ago, and Ksenia was not on that list," he told CBS News. He said he had been pushing for her to be sent home for that past eight months.

But lawyer said earlier this month it was "impossible" for Karelina to have been included in the swap because an exchange can only happen once the court verdict is handed down.

"After the verdict, of course, we will work in this direction," the lawyer, Mikhail Mushailov, told reporters last week.

City News Service contributed to this report.