Dual national prisoners head home in US-Russia swap

Russia released a dual Russian-US citizen jailed for donating to a charity providing aid to Ukraine, her lawyer said on Thursday, in what the Wall Street Journal described as a swap for a Russian-German national jailed in the United States.

A lawyer for Ksenia Karelina, who was found guilty last year of treason by a Russian court for donating money to a US-based charity providing humanitarian support to Ukraine, told Reuters she was on her way back to the United States.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe and a senior Russian intelligence official conducted talks for the swap in Abu Dhabi, according to a CIA official quoted by the Journal.

She was swapped for Arthur Petrov, a dual German-Russian citizen, who was arrested in 2023 in Cyprus at the request of the US for allegedly exporting sensitive microelectronics.

The US Justice Department said last year that Petrov had participated in a scheme to procure US-sourced microelectronics for manufacturers supplying weaponry and other equipment to the Russian military.