From Whelan to Karelina: The Americans Held in Russian Prisons
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced Tuesday that a dual U.S.-Russian citizen was arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg on charges of “financially assisting a foreign state in activities directed against [Russian] security.” The detainee was later identified by news agencies as 33-year-old Ksenia Karelina, a native of Yekaterinburg who obtained U.S. citizenship in 2021 and lives in Los Angeles. Karelina is now one of several U.S. citizens currently held in the Russian prison system, most of whom are waiting to be released via a prisoner swap. Moscow has been accused of t...