Russia denies appeal of L.A. woman held for ‘treason’

A judge in Russia on Thursday denied the appeal of a Los Angeles woman detained for “treason,” apparently for making a small donation to a charity that aids Ukraine.

Russian media reported that Ksenia Karelina, a 32-year-old dual U.S.-Russia citizen, appeared by video link in Sverdlovsk Region Court in the city of Yekaterinburg, where Russian security officers arrested her on Jan 27. She was shown behind bars wearing a white longsleeve shirt.

Reports said that the judge rejected a request from a lawyer for Karelina that she be released from detention to stay under house arrest with her parents in Yekaterinburg before a trial.

“What’s happening to Ksenia is a terrible punishment,” said Isabella Koretz, a friend who owns the Ciel Spa in Beverly Hills, where Karelina is employed as an aesthetician. “Just to imagine that an American citizen is in Russian jail right now for making a donation to the victims of war and for having the audacity to visit her parents. Are these truly her crimes?”

“The American government and all of us here need to continue to fight for her release.”

Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, announced the arrest on Feb. 20, when it said a Los Angeles woman was “proactively collecting funds in the interests of one of the Ukrainian organizations.”

Independent media identified her as Ksenia Khavana, her married name before a divorce, and said she was arrested for donating a little more than $50 to Razom for Ukraine, or Together for Ukraine, a New York-based group that gives humanitarian aid to Ukraine.