Ksenia Karelina, a US-Russian national, has been released in a prisoner swap between Moscow and Washington.
According to CBS News, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday, April 10, 2025, announced that the dual citizen, Karelina, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison for treason in August 2024, has been released from Russia.
The Wall Street Journal that first reported the release said that the Russian-American ballet dancer was freed in a prisoner swap arranged by the US and Russian intelligence agencies.
Rubio, in a social media post, wrote, “American Ksenia Karelina is on a plane back home to the United States. She was wrongfully detained by Russia for over a year, and President Trump secured her release."
The WSJ quoted CIA Director John Ratcliffe saying, “President Trump brought home another wrongfully detained American from Russia" and lauding "the CIA officers who worked tirelessly to support this effort."
As per Russian state media, Karelina was arrested for donating about $51 to an American-based humanitarian group that was helping war-impacted Ukrainians.
A lawyer representing Karelina in Russia, Mikhail Mushailov, told CBS News that she departed from Abu Dhabi on a flight at about 3 am Eastern.
Furthermore, in exchange for the California-based ballet dancer, the US government has freed a German-Russian national, Arthur Petrov, who was arrested in Cyprus in 2023 at the American authorities request on the allegations of exporting sensitive microelectronics.
