Russian American sentenced with treason for financing Ukraine charity 

Russian-American twin citizen Ksenia Karelina was sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony and fined 300 thousand rubles ($3,400) in a closed session of the Sverdlovsk Regional Court docket. 

Karelina was arrested on January 27 2024, and detained in a Yekaterinburg jail below Article 275 of the Russian Prison Code which covers treason. Particularly, she was charged with rendering help to a overseas state or group in hostile actions to the detriment of the exterior safety of the Russian Federation, dedicated by a citizen of Russia, which carries a most sentence of 20 years in a penal colony. This comes because the Russo-Ukrainian battle enters its second 12 months. 

In response to prosecutors, the Russian Federal Safety Service (FSB) uncovered that Karelina had raised funds for a Ukrainian group that helps the Armed Forces of Ukraine, parts of which, together with the far proper ‘Azov’ regiment and the nationalist ‘Georgian Legion’ have been designated as a terrorist group and is banned in Russia. A gaggle of Russian attorneys, Pervy Otdel, additionally indicated that Karelina had donated over $50 from her US checking account on the day that Russia started its operations in Ukraine. The cash was allegedly despatched to Razom for Ukraine, which denied that it had supplied any help for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Nonetheless, Razom’s ‘Razom Heroes’ program states on its web site that it goals to supply ‘life-saving assist to the primary responders and front-line medics’ and options pictures of military-style tactical tools. On the official web site of Ukraine, Razom is acknowledged for offering ‘tactical medical objects.’

Karelina was not included within the latest Russia-US prisoner swap, which was the most important prisoner change between Washington and Moscow because the Chilly Struggle.