Russia has the American-Russian former ballet dancer Ksenia Karelina, who was convicted of betrayal, extradited to the United States. The US Foreign Minister Marco Rubio reports this on X. In exchange, the Russian German Arthur Petrov was released, who was stuck in an American prison for smuggling. The Russian Federal Security Service reports this on Thursday.
Karelina, born in Russia, is said to have obtained the American citizenship in 2021 after she married an American. She lived in Los Angeles, but was arrested when she visited her family in Jekaterinenburg, a city in West-Central-Russia in 2024.
Karelina is said to have committed betrayal by collecting “proactive” money for an organization that supplied things to the Ukrainian forces, according to the Russian Federal Security Service. That writes the AP news agency. She was sentenced to a prison sentence of twelve years. The American authorities called the allegations “completely ridiculous.”
A Russian human rights group stated that it was a donation of around 50 dollars to an American charity that is committed to Ukraine.
Smuggling
In 2023, Arthur Petrov was arrested in Cyprus at the request of the US. According to the Americans, he smuggled American microelectronics to Russia for military use. A year later, Cyprus handed out the man to the US, where he was a prison sentence of twenty years above his head.
It is more common for Russia and the US to exchange prisoners. Last February, for example, the American history teacher and former diplomat Marc Fogel was released by Russia, where he was convicted of drug smuggling.