By A Russian court has sentenced a Russian-American woman to 12 years in prison for treason after she made a donation of just over $50 to a US-based charity supporting Ukraine.
Karelina, who has American and Russian citizenship, pleaded guilty last week after a trial held behind closed doors.
According to the BBC, she had been living in Los Angeles and became a US citizen in 2021. She was arrested during a family visit last January in Yekaterinburg, about 1,600km (1,000 miles) east of Moscow.
Prosecutors had sought a 15-year jail term. The court in Yekaterinburg found her guilty of high treason and sentenced her to imprisonment in a general regime penal colony.
Karelina’s lawyer, Mikhail Mushailov, told Russian media he would appeal the verdict.
Her conviction comes two weeks after Russia and the West carried out the largest prisoner swap since the Cold War, where 24 people, including former US Marine Paul Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, were released as part of a sweeping deal involving at least seven countries.
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