Ksenia Karelina had left Los Angeles around New Year's on a flight to Moscow via Istanbul. She was excited to see her younger sister, her parents and her grandmother in Yekaterinburg, the city east of the Ural Mountains in Russia that she had left more than a decade ago to start a new life in USA.
Now, the 33-year-old spa beautician and amateur dancer, a dual Russian and American citizen, is behind bars in Russia accused of treason, as her loved ones fear for her fate and U.S. officials warn that the country has become too dangerous. for any American to stay.
News of his arrest came from Russia's top security agency, and the treason charges arose from an apparent donation to a New York-based Ukrainian charity that helps Ukraine's military, which for nearly two years has been fighting against the full-scale Russian invasion.
Eleonora Srebroski said she was worried that Karelina, her former daughter-in-law, would not be able to leave Russia, where repression under President Vladimir Putin has become harsher since the start of the war in Ukraine.
“I have no hope that justice will be done in Russia. Does not exist. But here we live in a powerful country and we can make noise and get attention,” she said, speaking near Baltimore. “I just hope he doesn't spend the rest of his life in prison… I know that in Russia they will suffer physical and mental abuse, and I am very worried.”
The case, the latest detention involving a U.S. citizen in Russia, prompted a stern warning from the White House that U.S. citizens should not remain in the country. Spokesman John Kirby told reporters Tuesday that the Biden administration was trying to learn more about the arrest and the circumstances surrounding it.
The State Department said consular access had not yet been granted, and spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters that dual nationals, like the arrested woman, are in fact treated as Russian citizens for legal purposes.
Experts have said Russian authorities may target Americans as potential bargaining chips for possible use in prisoner exchanges, such as the one in which American basketball star Brittney Griner was freed in late 2022. That exchange involved a Russian arms dealer named Viktor Bout.
Kirby said Tuesday that American citizens in Russia were in active danger.
“I want to reiterate our strong warnings about the danger they pose to American citizens inside Russia,” he said. “So if you are a U.S. citizen, including a dual citizen residing in or traveling to Russia, you should leave right now.”
News of the Los Angeles woman's arrest comes at a time when the authoritarian nature of the Russian state is causing deep alarm in Western capitals. Last week, Russian authorities announced that Putin's staunchest critic, opposition figure Alexei Navalny, had died in a remote Arctic penal colony. President Biden, along with human rights groups and European leaders, blamed Putin's regime.
A statement from Russia's Federal Security Service, known as FSB, did not identify the detained Los Angeles woman by name, but a group of Russian lawyers that tracks such cases identified her as Ksenia Khavana, her married name. Mediazona, an independent Russian media outlet, identified her by her maiden name, which she used on her social media accounts.
The FSB said in a statement that she was accused of “proactively raising funds in the interests of one of the Ukrainian organizations, which were subsequently used to purchase tactical medical items, equipment, weapons and ammunition by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”
The Russian law group known as Perviy Otdel, or First Department, said it was accused of sending a donation of just over $50 to the group Razom for Ukraine, or Together for Ukraine. She noted that such donations could be traced through bank records that could be easily retrieved from a person's phone during a border crossing or other checks by authorities.
“We recommend deleting the history of money transfers to foreign accounts from banking applications, including foreign banks,” the group wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
In a statement, Razom said its leaders were “horrified” that Karelina allegedly faced charges for giving money to the group, which focuses on “humanitarian aid, disaster relief, education and advocacy” in support of a “prosperous future.” , safe and democratic for Ukraine.”
Russian authorities said the arrest took place in Yekaterinburg, which is also where Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested in March of last year.
A video published by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti showed the woman, dressed in a padded jacket and a knitted hat pulled down over her eyes, being handcuffed and led to a courtroom.
Karelina moved to the United States as part of a program to work and study English in the Baltimore area shortly before she got married in 2013, Srebroski said. Although her marriage to her son, Evgeny Khavana, did not work out, the former couple stayed in close contact when the woman moved to Los Angeles in 2015 to start over with a best friend, Srebroski said.
Her profile on the Russian social media platform VK said she became a US citizen in 2021.
Karelina shared photos on social media of her travels around her adopted country: posing by the Pacific Ocean, dancing on the Brooklyn Bridge, and skiing in the mountains of Pennsylvania.
“Once you meet her, it's hard not to love her,” said Srebroski, who considers her a friend.
Records show Karelina living in an apartment in the Miracle Mile area. A building employee at the five-story complex said he was not authorized to confirm whether she was a resident.
According to her LinkedIn account, Karelina worked as a manager at the Ciel Spa at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills. Isabella Koretz, owner of the spa, said in a statement that she was “devastated” by the news. “To know Ksenia is to love her and this heartbreaking news is very difficult to share, but it must be done to spread her story and seek justice. Help us spread the word and bring Ksenia home!
Evgeny Khavana, who did not respond to calls from a journalist, did not want to speak to the media, according to his mother, Srebroski.
“But he talked to her all the time. They were in contact regularly while she was in Russia, and he said he had already gone through additional screening upon landing at the Moscow airport,” said Srebroski, a financial data analyst in the Baltimore area. “Then he recently lost contact and started to worry that something might have happened to her. “Now we know what.”
Accusations again against Karelina could punish her with up to 20 years in prison.
Even as his arrest was announced, a Moscow court rejected an appeal by Gershkovich, the imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter. Gershkovich remains in pretrial detention after being arrested on an espionage charge, which he and the Journal have strenuously denied.
The Mediazona report said that Karelina had been detained in Yekaterinburg on January 28 and initially charged with “hooliganism,” with much more serious accusations subsequently made against her.
In addition to Gershkovich, Alsou Kurmasheva, a dual Russian-American citizen, is also detained in Russia. Editor of Radio Liberty-Radio Free Europe, she was arrested in the fall after traveling from her base in Prague to visit her relatives in Russia. She has been accused of failing to register as a foreign agent.
Another high-profile case is that of Paul Whelan, a former US Marine serving a 16-year sentence on espionage charges. He has denied the charges and the State Department considers him wrongfully detained.
Kaleem reported from Los Angeles, special correspondent Ayres from kyiv, Ukraine, and King from Washington.
