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Moscow has arrested a US-Russian dual citizen on treason charges for allegedly raising funds on behalf of Ukraine’s army.
The FSB security service said the unnamed woman, 33, lived in Los Angeles and had organised fundraisers for a Ukrainian group that spent the money on medical supplies, equipment, weapons and ammunition, according to Russian newswires.
It published a video of the woman, whose face was blurred out, being arrested and held in a court in Ekaterinburg, where she was denied bail.
Moscow has arrested several US citizens in recent years and exchanged some of them for valuable Russians in western custody.
In 2022, it released US basketball star Brittney Griner, who pleaded guilty to drug charges, in exchange for Viktor Bout, a notorious arms dealer known as the “Merchant of Death”.
The FSB arrested Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on espionage charges in Ekaterinburg, the largest city in Russia’s central Ural region, last year.
Russian President Vladimir Putin hinted this month that he wanted to exchange Gershkovich for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian assassin serving a life sentence for the murder of former Chechen rebel Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in Berlin in 2019.
Putin said: “I do not rule out that the person you refer to, Mr Gershkovich, may return to his motherland. We want the US special services to think about how they can contribute to achieving the goals our special services are pursuing.”
US Marine veteran Paul Whelan was convicted on espionage charges in Russia in 2020 and is serving a 16-year sentence in a rural prison colony. The US, Gershkovich and Whelan vehemently deny the charges.
Another US-Russian dual citizen, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reporter Alsu Kurmasheva, is being held after she was arrested in October on charges of violating a law on “foreign agents.”
The US embassy in Moscow did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest detention.
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