The State Department confirmed on Thursday the release of the American prisoner-ruso Ksenia Karelina, whom the Russian government had sentenced 12 years in prison last year for “betrayal” charges for donating a Ukrainian beneficial organization.
According to the reports, the administration of President Donald Trump assured the release of Karelina as part of a prisoner exchange agreement that also launched a Russian national, Artur Petrov, imprisoned in the United States for illegal export positions of American technology. The statement preceded the scheduled conversations between US representatives and Russian officials in Istanbul, Turkey aimed to improve relations between the two countries that have dissuaded their worst state since the previous President Joe.
The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, confirmed that Karelina was “in a plane at home” in the early hours of Thursday, emphasizing that Trump “will continue working for the release of all Americans.”
Karelina, a double American-Rusa citizen based in Los Angeles who identified as a dancer, was arrested in Russia in January 2024 after traveling to visit relatives. According to reports, Karelina moved to the United States in 2012 and acquired US citizens only three years before his trial in Russia. His family emphasized that, before his visit, he did not anticipate having any problem with the government.
The Russian authorities, which regularly stop Americans for frivolous reasons to use them for host – A beneficial organization with headquarters in the United States that helps victims of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Razom has focused through war to provide humanitarian aid to civilians in the first line of the invasion and finance medical efforts in the affected areas, as well as the legislation for the United States to support Ukraine efforts in the invasion in the home.
Karelina was finally sentenced to 12 years in prison for her donation after, please, guilty of “betrayal.” The Russian government accused Razom of using their money to finance the Ukrainian army, which was supposedly allocated to “tactical medicine, equipment, weapons and ammunition.”
The Los Angeles resident was prominently omitted from an important SWAP of prisoners negotiated by the Biden Administration in August when Karelina was completing her plea procedures. That month, the Biden administration celebrated the launch of four Americans, including three journalists, in exchange for a accused Russian murderer, Vadim Krasikov. Moscow released 16 people in that exchange of prisoners, four of whom are Americans: Wall Street Journal Reporter Evan Gershkovich; Russian-American journalists also Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Muza; and former Marine Paul Whelan.
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) independently confirmed the launch of Karelina on Thursday, as well as the expectation that Petrov would return to Russia imminently. According to reports, Petrov, both a Russian and German citizen, faced up to 20 years in prison. Outside this confirmation, the Kremlin did not offer additional comments.
The exchange of prisoners seemed to be a gesture of good will scheduled before the scheduled meeting on Thorsy’s day between Russian and American officials in Istanbul. These conversations, the State Department explained on Wednesday, are part of a larger linked framework or diplomacy, but not directly addressing the invasion of Ukraine and are intended for rehabilitation relations between Moscow and Washington.
The spokeswoman of the State Department, Tammy Bruce, told journalists on Wednesday that the conversations seek to “progress to further stabilize the operations of our bilateral missions” and that they would not direct directly to Ukraine.
“There are no political or security problems on the agenda, and Ukraine is not – At all – On the agenda, “Bruce emphasized.” These conversations focus solely on our embassy operations, not on the normalization of a bilateral relationship in general, which can only happen, as we have pointed out, once there is peace between Russia and Ukraine. “
However, Bruce declared that President Trump considered to resolve the war in Ukraine as a continuous priority, and was “committed to finding and demanding the return of the missing or stolen Ukrainian children of Russia.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, similarly, said the duration of journalists in Thorsday: “The conversations between the [Russian] The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United States Department of State are discussing only the problems of normalization of bilateral relations. “
“These conversations are not discussing the resolution of the Ukraine crisis,” he added.
Before the meeting this week, the Russian ambassador to Washington Alexander Darchiev told reporters that the objective of Istanbul’s conversations was to start “getting rid of the toxic legacy of the previous administration of the United States, which established strict limits in the activities of activities between Russia and the United States.
He Times of MoscowQuoting the Russian state news agency, Tass said that the anonymous Russian sources hoped that Thursday’s conversations would last “several hours” and that the environment around the conversations was “positive.”
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