2024-02-29 21:11:22
A Russian court today rejected the appeal of a woman with dual Russian-American citizenship against her detention on charges of treason, Reuters reported.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSS) said last week that Ksenia Karelina had been detained on suspicion of fundraising for the Ukrainian military. The Los Angeles resident collected aid for a Ukrainian organization, with the money ultimately going to the Ukrainian armed forces, the FSS claims.
The Russian advocacy organization “First Department” said it has information that on February 24, 2022 – the day the Russian army began the so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine, Karelina donated a little more than 50 dollars from her own American bank account to a charity organization that sends aid to Kiev, BTA reported.
Several other American citizens are held in Russian prisons, including former Marine Paul Whelan and journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsou Kurmasheva, Reuters notes. According to their supporters, Moscow is using them to pressure Washington with the idea of ​​exchanging them for Russian citizens serving sentences in American prisons. The Kremlin, for its part, says it is simply enforcing Russian laws.