The United States and Russia exchanged prisoners in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, as Washington and Moscow edge toward a diplomatic rapprochement.
Russia released Ksenia Karelina, a U.S.-Russian dual national, who was found guilty in Russia for donating a small sum to a U.S.-based Ukrainian charity and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Karelina, a former ballet dancer, became a U.S. citizen in 2021 after marrying an American and moving to Los Angeles.
In exchange, the U.S. freed Artur Petrov, a German-Russian dual citizen who was arrested in 2023 in Cyprus at the request of U.S. authorities for allegedly exporting sensitive microelectronics.
“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,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday, adding Trump “will continue to work for the release of ALL Americans.”
According to The Wall Street Journal, which first broke the story, the exchange took place at Abu Dhabi airport as part of a deal brokered by intelligence agencies.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe and a senior Russian intelligence official conducted talks on the swap, the Journal reported citing a CIA official.
Russia’s Federal Security Service confirmed the prisoner exchange later Thursday.
Thursday’s swap marks the second such exchange between Washington and Moscow since Trump took office earlier this year. In February, the U.S. secured the release of Marc Fogel, an American schoolteacher previously detained in Russia on drug charges, in exchange for Russian entrepreneur Alexander Vinnik.
The post Russia frees ballerina in prisoner swap with US appeared first on Politico.
