A court in Russia sentenced a dual citizen of Russia and the United States on Thursday to 12 years in prison on accusations that she committed treason by donating money — about $50 — for Ukraine’s armed forces.
The court, in the city of Yekaterinburg, claimed to have found that the funds donated by the woman, Ksenia Karelina, 32, “were subsequently used to purchase tactical medicine, equipment, weapons and ammunition” for Ukraine. She can still appeal, though the prosecution nearly always gets its way in treason cases in Russia’s stage-managed judicial system.
The conviction of Ms. Karelina, also known as Ksenia Khavana, was the latest in a series of treason and other cases by Russia against citizens of Western countries. The surge in such cases in recent years has raised concerns that the Kremlin views the accused as valuable assets to be traded for high-profile Russians held by the United States and other countries in the West.
Russian investigators accused Ms. Karelina of donating $52 to a New York-based nonprofit that bought weapons and other equipment, including medical aid, for Ukraine’s military, according to Perviy Otdel, a group of Russian lawyers who specialize in cases involving accusations of treason and other politically charged issues.
Ms. Karelina, who is from Yekaterinburg and lives in Los Angeles, pleaded guilty, according to Mikhail Mushailov, her lawyer. He said Ms. Karelina had instructed him to “do everything possible from the legal side to make sure she ends up on a list to get swapped” to return to the United States.
Mr. Mushailov did not disclose further details about the case, because it was classified.
Ms. Karelina, whose trial began on June 20, was arrested in February while visiting Yekaterinburg, an industrial city about 850 miles east of Moscow. Her case was heard by the same judge who presided over the trial of the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was freed this month in a prisoner swap after receiving a 16-year sentence in July.
That prisoner swap was the largest between Russia and Western countries since the Cold War. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus, his ally, released 16 prisoners, including Mr. Gershkovich, the Russian American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine. They were exchanged for a convicted assassin and seven other Russians, including hackers and spies.
But Russia still has several Americans in its prisons. One is Marc Fogel, a history teacher who worked for almost a decade at the Anglo-American School of Moscow. In 2021, when trying to enter Russia, Mr. Fogel was arrested and accused of smuggling drugs after customs officers found a small amount of medical marijuana in his luggage. His relatives have said it was to treat severe pain.
In June 2022, Mr. Fogel, a native of western Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for drug smuggling. In Russia, people convicted of murder have often received shorter sentences.
Another American in Russian custody is Michael Travis Leake, a rock musician who was sentenced last month to 13 years after prosecutors accused him of organizing a drug-trafficking ring.
Perviy Otdel, the legal group, said that Ms. Karelina’s case revolved around $52 donated to Razom for Ukraine, a New York-based nonprofit group that sends assistance to the country.
According to Ms. Karelina’s profile on VK, a Russian social network, she became a United States citizen in 2021. Her profile, which identified her as a student at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, said that she had graduated from Ural Federal University in Yekaterinburg in 2014.
The number of state treason cases in Russia has been growing steadily since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. Last year, about 50 people were accused of the offense, according to Perviy Otdel, including high-profile critics of the Kremlin and a student accused of photographing Russian Army formations in his town.
Oleg Matsnev contributed reporting.
Read More: Russia Sentences U.S. Citizen to 12 Years in Prison on Treason Charges
