US-Russian ballerina reflects on release from Russian penal colony after year-long ordeal
Fox News
American ballerina Ksenia Karelina shares details of her year-long imprisonment in Russia on treason charges over a $51.80 donation to a Ukraine charity.
David Spector is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to david.spector@fox.com.
Karelina was detained in Jan. 2024 when she had traveled to Russia, her home country, to visit her family. The ballerina, who worked as an esthetician at a Los Angeles spa, had been accused of treason over a 2022 donation totaling $51.80 that she made to a U.S. charity supporting victims of the war in Ukraine. She was sentenced to 12 years in a Russian labor camp.
"Right when I landed in my homeland, that’s when everything started. I was going through border control for the paperwork check. They asked if I had another passport. I said that I do, and they asked for the passport, and they saw the other passport is an American passport. They took both documents, and they say they’re going to talk with me separate, and it was 11 hours of the first examination overnight," Karelina said.
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