Ksenia Karelina was found guilty of treason for donating $51 (£39) to a charity supporting Ukraine.

A Russian court has sentenced amateur ballerina Ksenia Karelina to 12 years in jail for treason for donating $51 (£39) to a charity supporting Ukraine.

Karelina, who has American and Russian citizenship, pleaded guilty last week after a trial held behind closed doors.

  • VindictiveJudgeEnglish
    14•1 month ago

    Abandoning citizenship usually requires jumping through hoops, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she had to return to Russia to file the paperwork.

    In other instances, though, it’s actually really easy to inherit multiple citizenship, especially if one of those is American. You’re automatically an American citizen if you were born in the US or if either of your parents was an American citizen at the time of your birth. Additionally, anyone born to two Russian parents is automatically a Russian citizen, or if they were born in Russia to at least one Russian parent. So if a Russian couple who went to America after the USSR collapsed but didn’t bother renouncing their citizenship and then had kids, those kids would have both Russian and American citizenship. Alternatively, if an American citizen went to the Russian Federation and had a child with a local, the child would also have dual citizenship.

    • CadeillacEnglish
      11•1 month ago

      return to Russia

      There could be numerous reasons for her to want to return to or be in Russia. Family is the first thing to come to mind

      • @[email protected]English
        2•1 month ago

        Well yeah, if you don’t you still have to pay income tax, regardless of your nation of residence.

        • @[email protected]English
          3•1 month ago

          the us is the only one of two countries out of 200 that makes citizens abroad have to pay taxes