Yes, she is back at home in the U.S., after serving over a year of a 12-year prison sentence in Russia for allegedly having committed treason. Her actual “offense”? Having made — two years earlier, in the U.S. — a $51 donation to a pro-Ukraine fund. The transaction was found in her cell phone records when she was detained by authorities while on a visit to her family in Yekaterinburg, Russia, in early 2024.

Negotiations for her release are said to have been underway for some time (presumably begun during the Biden administration), and were finally concluded during a meeting in Washington between presidential envoy Steve Witkoff and Putin adviser Kirill Dmitriev.

In return, the U.S. released dual Russian-German citizen Arthur Petrov, who had been charged with export control violations, smuggling, wire fraud, and money laundering. Clearly, America got the better end of that trade.

And so we welcome home Ksenia Karelina, whose nightmare is finally over. That’s one more name crossed off of our list.

*. *. *

And never forgetting those left behind . . .

The Azov 12
David Barnes
Ales Bialiatski (in Belarus)
Gordon Black
Andrei Chapiuk (in Belarus)
Antonina Favorskaya
Konstantin Gabov
Robert Gilman
Stephen James Hubbard
Sergey Karelin
Ksenia Karelina
Ihar Karney (in Belarus)
Vadim Kobzev
Artyom Kriger
Uladzimir Labkovich (in Belarus)
Michael Travis Leake
Aleksei Liptser
Ihar Losik (in Belarus)
Daniel Martindale
Farid Mehralizada (in Azerbaijan)
Nika Novak
Marfa Rabkova (in Belarus)
Igor Sergunin
Dmitry Shatresov
Robert Shonov
Eugene Spector
Valiantsin Stafanovic (in Belarus)
Siarhei Tsikhanouski (in Belarus)
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland
Vladislav Yesypenko (in Crimea)
Yuras Zyankovich (in Belarus)

. . . while looking forward to the day they’re all at home again.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
4/13/25