A US-Russian dual national jailed in Russia for treason was freed Thursday in a prisoner exchange with Washington, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

Ksenia Karelina, also identified in the media as Ksenia Khavana, is “on a plane back home to the United States,” Rubio said in a post on X.

She was arrested in Yekaterinburg in February 2024 and convicted on charges stemming from a donation of about €47 to a charity aiding Ukraine.

The US authorities have labelled the case against her “absolutely ludicrous”.

She was exchanged for Arthur Petrov, a German-Russian citizen arrested in Cyprus in 2023 over allegations of microchip exports, reports say.

Karelina, a former ballet dancer, reportedly obtained US citizenship after marrying an American and moving to Los Angeles. She was arrested when she returned to Russia to visit her family last year.

Russia’s Federal Security Service said she “proactively collected money in the interests of one of the Ukrainian organisations, which was subsequently used to purchase tactical medical supplies, equipment, weapons, and ammunition for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”

Karelina pleaded guilty to the charges in a closed trial, according to Russian state media.

Her lawyer, Mikhail Mushailov, said Karelina pleaded guilty to transferring the funds but said she was not aware the money would be used for “anti-Russian actions”, adding that he planned to appeal the verdict.

Her partner, Chris Van Heerden, has been campaigning for her release since she was arrested.

“I thought it might be dangerous for her to go, with everything going on with the war in Ukraine, but she reassured me that she was Russian and that everything would be fine,” he told a Los Angeles newspaper in August 2024.

Russia has passed laws that criminalise criticism of its actions in Ukraine and remarks considered to discredit the Russian military since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Earlier this week, a Russian court reduced the prison sentence of a US soldier who was convicted last year of theft and making threats of murder, in the latest signal of thawing relations between Washington and Moscow.

This is a developing story and our journalists are working on further updates.

Additional sources • AP