American Citizen Ksenia Karelina Freed from Russian Prison Colony

What Happened?

Ksenia Karelina, who holds dual citizenship with the United State and Russia, has been freed from a Russian prison colony. 

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on X “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.”

Russia’s Federal Security Service, known by its Russian acronym, FSB, confirmed Thursday that Ms. Karelina was handed over to American authorities as part of a prisoner exchange. 

Why it Matters

The release of a U.S. citizen wrongfully detained by a foreign government is always good news. But whether the release really signals an improvement in U.S. Russian relations is a question that deservers closer scrutiny.

Ms. Karelina’s case is illustrative of the state of the justice system in Russia today. She was arrested and sentenced to twelve years in prison for donating fifty dollars to a pro-Ukrainian charity. 

The charge against her was treason, which is ridiculous by any rational standard. Her imprisonment illustrates that Russia’s government is really not a government at all in the sense the term is understood in the United States or Europe.

Russia is a mafia state where the government is just an apparatus controlled by various oligarchs and powerbrokers who answer to no one but themselves. Government bureaucrats in Russia often have little choice but to do as their told, because powerbrokers can have them fired or imprisoned without anything remotely resembling due process. 

In this system Russian President Putin is more like a mafia boss than a president. He uses punishments or rewards (bribes) to get the systems of the state to do what he wants it to.

The Russian government extorts, threatens, brutalizes and imprisons its own people while stealing from and murdering its neighbors. Ukraine is just one example.

So while freeing an American from the clutches of the FSB is good, thus far the Trump Administration has said nothing about the Russian system which committed this injustice and continues to commit countless more injustices each day.

Mr. Rubio has indicated the prisoner release is a step towards normalizing relations with Russia. But that claim is undercut by the way Russia operates. 

Russia’s government views prisoners like Ms. Karelina as pawns to be traded or used as leverage against the United States. There is no indication Russia’s current regime plans to make any changes to the way it operates. 

Such a regime is inherently untrustworthy, which makes establishing and maintaining normal relations virtually impossible.

How it Affects You

The Russian government isn’t America’s friend as indicated by its frequent threats against us and our allies. Diplomacy with Russia is necessary simply because it is so powerful.

Even during the height of the Cold War, the U.S. and Soviet Union sometimes engaged in diplomacy. But there should be no illusions that Russia will probably turn on the Trump Administration whenever it feels like it.