An American citizen had been released from Russian curation of a rare exchange of prisoners, United States officials and Russia said on Thursday, amid a wider effort by the two nations to repair relations.
The prisoner, Ksenia Karelina, a double citizen of Russia and the United States, estimated a 12 -year sentence in Russia after being convicted of betrayal for a donation of about $ 50 to a non -profit team sending help to Ukraine.
Foreign Minister Marco Rubio said on Thursday that Ms Karelina, 33, was “on a plane back home in the United States”.
“He had been incorrectly kept by Russia for more than a year and President Trump secured her release,” he wrote in X.
Russia’s Intelligence Service, the FSB, said in a statement that Ms Karelina had been released after presidential thanks to Arthur Petrov, a citizen of Russia and Germany, whom the Ministry of Justice had accused of exporting control.
The news of the prisoners’ exchange were first mentioned by the Wall Street Journal, which said it had taken place in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates capital.
The exchange was the last indication that communication between Washington and Moscow was on the right track, even when talks led by Trump’s administration for a possible ceasefire in Ukraine appear.
It came as the US and Russian diplomats met in Turkey to discuss practical measures to improve relationships – such as repetition of direct flights and levels of staffing at embassies.
Ms Karelina’s detention was one in a series of cases they put in fear that the Kremlin is seeking to use American citizens as negotiating brands to exchanging for the Russians in the West. An American basketball star, Brittney Griner, and a journalist, Evan Gershkovich, were both released in a high -profile prisoner during Biden’s administration.
In February, Russia agreed to release Marc Fogel, an American teacher imprisoned in Russia for drugs. Mr Fogel’s liberation – which Biden’s administration had classified as wrong prisoners – was part of an agreement with the Kremlin negotiated by Mr Trump’s special envoy in the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.
In return, officials said, the United States agreed to release Alexander Vinnik, a Russian who had been convicted of conspiracy to commit money laundering. This was seen as an attempt to establish goodwill, as Trump’s administration called for ways to reach an agreement to end the war in Ukraine that Russia began more than three years ago.
Ms Karelina, who lives in Los Angeles, was arrested last year while visiting her grandparents in Yekaterinburg, a city about 850 miles east of Moscow. The charges against her revolved around a one -time donation to Razom for Ukraine, a non -profit non -profit organization that sends non -military assistance to the country.
