Woman jailed over charity gift freed in US-Russia prisoner swap

A Russian-American citizen has been released in a prisoner swap between Moscow and Washington.

Amateur ballerina Ksenia Karelina, a Los Angeles resident, had been in prison in Russia for over a year, after being arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg in early 2024.

She was found guilty of treason for donating money to a US-based charity providing humanitarian support to Ukraine and sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony.

In exchange, the US reportedly freed Arthur Petrov, a dual German-Russian citizen arrested in Cyprus in 2023.

The prisoner swap took place in Abu Dhabi in the early hours of Thursday.

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