Trump Admin Secures Release Of US Ballet Dancer ‘Wrongfully Detained By Russia’

The Trump administration successfully negotiated the release of Russian-American duel citizen Ksenia Karelina, an amateur ballet dancer, from a Russian prison on Thursday in an overnight prisoner exchange. 

“American Ksenia Karelina is on a plane back home to the United States,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on X. “She was wrongfully detained by Russia for over a year and President Trump secured her release.”

Karelina was handed over in Abu Dhabi and is on her way to the United States. Her freedom was secured in a prisoner swap for Arthur Petrov, a dual Russian-German citizen who was detained in 2023 for crimes related to exporting illegally procured sensitive microelectronics, smuggling, wire fraud and money laundering.

Karelina, 34, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for treason after donating $51.80 to Razom, a U.S. charity providing humanitarian aid to Ukraine. She was arrested in 2024 while visiting her 90-year-old grandmother in Russia. Born in Russia, Karelina moved to the U.S. in 2012 and became an American citizen in 2021. 

Karelina’s boyfriend, Chris van Heerden, said she was “pulled aside and questioned” when she entered Russia in January 2024. Russian authorities took her phone and discovered the donation on her Venmo app. She was first charged with hooliganism, then the charge was upgraded to treason, and she was taken into custody. Russia has accused Razom of funding military equipment for Ukraine, though the nonprofit has denied this. The U.S. was not aware of her arrest until February 2024.

“Because she is a dual US/Russian citizen, the Russians are treating her as a Russian, and the U.S. Embassy has not been granted access to visit her,” Van Heerden wrote in July 2024.

Karelina is a resident of Los Angeles and became a U.S. citizen in 2021.

“She does not have causes,” Van Heerden said. “She does yoga and goes for hikes. Occasionally, she roller skates or dances. She was trained as a ballerina and has worked for years in a spa, having recently obtained her aesthetician license. She likes ice cream. She is not an activist.”

Van Heerden said he received a letter from Karelina while she was incarcerated detailing the conditions of the prison, including only being allowed to shower once a week, having no access to hot water in her cell, and being forced to sleep with the lights on.

Karelina is the second U.S. citizen released from Russia since Trump was inaugurated in January. In February, Trump secured the release of American schoolteacher Marc Fogel, who spent three years in a Russian penal colony. He was given a warm welcome at the White House immediately after returning.