The California resident’s U.S.-Russian dual citizenship complicates her case.
Moscow’s arrest of a Los Angeles woman on charges of high treason has cast a new spotlight on the steep challenges imposed by Russia’s refusal to recognize almost all dual citizenships — sharply limiting diplomats’ ability to oversee the cases and intervene if warranted.
Ksenia Karelina, a 33-year-old former ballerina who holds both U.S. and Russian citizenship, was arrested Jan. 27 in the city of Yekaterinburg in central Russia and then jailed in early February for allegedly organizing fundraisers for Ukraine’s military, attending pro-Ukraine rallies, and posting messages against Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to Russian state media.
But even though a longstanding agreement between the U.S. and Russia requires both countries to immediately notify the other if one of their nationals is detained, officials in Washington had virtually no information about her case when she was publicly identified by the Russia’s Federal Security Service — earlier this week.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow were working to learn more and gain access to Karelina — a provision stipulated by the same agreement that requires notification.
However, Miller set low expectations, saying that in recent history, Russia has not recognized any dual U.S.-Russian national’s American citizenship.
« We have pressed it at a number of levels, » he said on Wednesday.
