Russia. Ksenia Karelina at court. The prosecutor’s office is seeking a 15-year prison sentence for subsidizing the Ukrainian military

Ksenia Karelina, 33, admitted to donating $50 to the Ukrainian military, her lawyer Mikhail Mushailov said Wednesday.

On Thursday, the Sverdlovsk District Court announced that the investigation into Karelin’s case was “terminated.” During closing arguments, the court said, the lawyer requested that Karelin be sentenced to 15 years in prison. The woman will serve her sentence in a normal security penal colony.

It has been announced that the verdict in this case will be announced on August 15.

Karelina, who was not included in Russia’s historic prisoner exchange with the West, is on trial in Yekaterinburg in the Urals in 2022 for donating money to the Ukrainian military.

As the Russian human rights group Pervy Otdel previously reported, on the first day of Russia’s armed invasion of Ukraine, Karelina transferred just over $50 from her bank account in the United States to a charity sending aid to Ukraine. This – as indicated by the Pervyi Otdel committee – is the reason for opening a criminal case against him.

Defendant was born in Russia but immigrated to the United States in 2012 and became a U.S. citizen in 2021. Karelina lived and worked in Los Angeles. Earlier this year he came to Russia to visit his family.

The woman was arrested by the Federal Security Service (FSB) soon after her arrival in Yekaterinburg.

The Russian Sotavision Telegram channel wrote that Karelina’s case is being handled by judge Andrey Miniev, who previously sentenced Ivan Kershkovich, a reporter for the American Wall Street Journal, to 16 years in prison.

Gershkovich was released as part of a prisoner exchange between the West and Russia in Ankara. It involved 24 people from prisons in seven countries, including Poland.

Karelina’s lawyer, Mikhail Mushailov, was quoted by the independent Russian-language website The Moscow Times as saying he would “take all legally necessary measures”.