American ballerina released from Russia in prisoner exchange: Rubio

Ksenia Karelina, a U.S.-Russian dual national who was detained last year on treason charges, was released from Russia in the latest prisoner exchange, according to the State Department.

“American Ksenia Karelina is on a plane back home to the United States. She was wrongfully detained by Russia for over a year and President Trump secured her release," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement Thursday on social platform X.

"@POTUS will continue to work for the release of ALL Americans,” he added.

Karelina, a former ballet dancer, was arrested in February 2024 in Yekaterinburg and found guilty by a Russian court in August 2024 of treason for donating just north of $50 to a U.S.-based Ukrainian charity. She was sentenced to 12 years in prison. 

The State Department previously determined that Karelina, also known by the surname Khavana, was wrongfully detained. She was arrested after going back to Russia to visit her family. 

Karelina moved to the Baltimore area in 2012 and in 2017, she relocated to Los Angeles. She obtained her U.S. citizenship in 2021 and a year later graduated from esthetician school, according to a website dedicated to her release.

The dancer's release represents another high-level prisoner exchange between Russia and the U.S. It is the second high-profile exchange since President Trump returned to the White House term in January. In February, the U.S. secured the release of Marc Fogel, an American schoolteacher who was imprisoned in Russia on drug charges. The swap led to the freeing of Russian cryptocurrency kingpin Alexander Vinnik.

Karelina was released in exchange for Arthur Petrov, a dual Russian-German national, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the swap.

Petrov was detained in 2023. He was accused of conspiring to smuggle microelectronics from U.S. distributors to Moscow as part of a Russian procurement network that supplies manufacturers for the Kremlin’s military. 

The Hill has reached out to the CIA for comment.