The American dancer detained in Russia for donating $51 to a Ukrainian charity has revealed she is being deprived of basic hygiene and is too afraid to go outside for fresh air.
In a recent letter to her boyfriend, Ksenia Karelina said that she is only allowed to shower once a week and has decided not to go out because guards are known to lock inmates and leave them on the frozen roof of the prison. arctic.
Her boyfriend, Chis Van Heerdan, said fox and friends Karelina has no access to hot water, is forced to sleep with the lights on, and has a strict 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. wake-up call.
‘It’s a day-to-day thing. One day she wakes up very hopeful and very positive, and then other days there is no hope,” said her boyfriend.
He added that Karelina also has days when she fears she will be trapped in the Russian prison for the rest of her life.
Ksenia Kalerina, the American dancer detained in Russia for donating $51 to a Ukrainian charity, revealed she is being deprived of basic hygiene and is too afraid to go outside for fresh air.
In a recent letter to her boyfriend, Karelina said she is only allowed to shower once a week and has decided not to go out on the roof because guards are known to lock inmates and leave them in the freezing weather.
Karelina, who has dual Russian-American citizenship, was charged with treason and faces up to 20 years in prison for making a small donation to the humanitarian organization Razom on the day Russia invaded Ukraine.
Karelina, who has dual Russian-American citizenship, was charged with treason and faces up to 20 years in prison for making a small donation to the humanitarian organization Razom on the day Russia invaded Ukraine.
As the couple tries to hold on to hope, her boyfriend said Karelina mentioned in her letter that through the small window in her cell she feels connected to him.
“I have a small window in my cell and I can see the sun, and I know that I am looking at the same sun that you look at when the sun sets,” he wrote in the letter.
After reading that note, Van Heerdan said he now has trouble looking at the sun because “he only thinks about her.”
His girlfriend is now being held in a cell at the Yekaterinburg detention center, about 1,600 kilometers east of Moscow, in conditions that contrast with her job as a beautician at a spa in Beverly Hills.
The payment was discovered after his phone was confiscated when he flew into Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo airport on January 2, planning to visit his 90-year-old grandparents in time for Christmas Day in Russia.
She was arrested after being invited to pick up her phone on January 27, the day Ven Heerden last spoke to her.
“Fifty-one dollars, come on,” he told NBC, “a simple donation because she’s nice.”
‘I was actually thinking about proposing to this woman, so every day is hard.
‘He has an affectionate smile. Always happy, so, so, so generous. Live a full life.’
Karelina is now being held in a cell at the Yekaterinburg detention center (pictured), about 1,000 miles east of Moscow, in conditions that contrast with her job as a beautician at a spa in Beverly Hills.
The payment was discovered after his phone was confiscated when he flew into Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo airport on January 2, planning to visit his 90-year-old grandparents in time for Christmas Day in Russia.
A detention hearing this week denied her request to be held under house arrest and Russia has refused to grant consular access to US officials as Karelina becomes the latest pawn in a diplomatic war between Washington and Moscow.
A detention hearing this week denied her request to be held under house arrest and Russia has refused to grant consular access to US officials as Karelina becomes the latest pawn in a diplomatic war between Washington and Moscow.
“I had no illusions,” Van Heerden said, insisting he would need a “miracle” to escape Russian custody.
“I broke down because I know Ksenia, she is a sweetheart, she is very soft and I can’t imagine how scared she must be,” she added.
‘I want people to know that Ksenia is a normal person, that’s my job. She is a normal American citizen who made a mistake.
‘I’m in a fight right now totally out of my control, I’m in a fight that I’m not familiar with. “I’m trying my best to do everything I can.”
He said U.S. State Department officials told him they still cannot access his girlfriend.
Karelina was sentenced to 14 days of detention for “petty hooliganism” before being charged with treason.
Russia’s FSB claims that it “proactively raised funds in the interests of one of the Ukrainian organizations, which the Ukrainian Armed Forces subsequently used to purchase tactical medicines, equipment, weapons and ammunition.”
In a statement, Razom CEO Dora Chomiak said the organization is “shocked by Karelina’s arrest.”
“Vladimir Putin has repeatedly demonstrated that he does not consider any sovereign border, foreign nationality or international treaty above his own interests,” Chomiak said.
“His regime attacks civil society activists who defend freedom and democracy.”
Her father, Pavel Karelina, 56, said he could not comment on the Russian government’s ongoing case against his daughter, but thanked the public for their support.
Van Heerdan said U.S. State Department officials told him they still can’t access his girlfriend and that she is “prepared for what could be the fight of her life.”
Last week, Karelina’s distraught father said he didn’t know how to help her.
In an interview with DailyMail.com, Pavel Karelina, 56, said he could not comment on the Russian government’s ongoing case against his daughter, but thanked the public for their support.
‘We can’t really say anything now. We ourselves do not understand what is happening,” said Pavel, general director of a Russian transport equipment company.
‘Please understand. Thanks for your good wishes.’
Karelina’s ex-husband, Evgeny Khavana, revealed last month that his own family lives in fear and cannot speak freely because he believes Russian authorities are “listening to” them.
He said: “We can’t talk, my family can’t say anything,” he added.
Her mother-in-law, Eleanora Sreboski, told DailyMail.com that Ksenia would spend the rest of her life in a Russian prison if the United States did not intervene.
Van Heerden said his girlfriend wavered between motivation one day and hopelessness the next, but was “prepared for what could be the fight of her life.”
