Russian-American citizen Ksenia Karelina was sentenced to 12 years in prison for "treason" by a Russian court after she made a donation of just over $50 to a pro-Ukraine charity, AFP reported.
Karelina, a 32-year-old ballerina and spa worker living in Los Angeles, was detained by police in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in late January while visiting relatives.
"The court found Ksenia Karelina guilty of treason and sentenced her to 12 years in prison in a general regime colony," said the Sverdlovsk Regional Court in the Ural city of Yekaterinburg.
She donated $51.80 to the New York-based charity Razom for Ukraine shortly after Russia launched its full-scale military offensive in February 2022, Russian rights groups and US media reported.
Russia's FSB security service accused her of collecting money that "was used to buy tactical medical supplies, equipment, weapons and ammunition for the Ukrainian armed forces."
Karelina pleaded guilty to the charges at a hearing last week.
Washington has accused Moscow of arresting its citizens on baseless charges to use them as bargaining chips for the release of Russians convicted abroad.
Karelina's sentencing came just over two weeks after Russia freed American reporter Evan Gershkovich, former US Marine Paul Whelan and 14 others in the biggest prisoner swap with the West since the Cold War.
On August 14, an American accused of violence against a Russian law enforcement officer in Moscow was sentenced to 15 days in custody for "hooliganism." |BGNES
