President Trump welcomed Russian-American ballet dancer Ksenia Karelina at the White House on Monday, officially greeting her return to the United States after being detained in Russia for 15 months.
In the Oval Office of the White House on Monday afternoon, Trump met with Karelina. The meeting was not open to White House reporters, but Trump’s communications advisor, Margo Martin, recorded a 14-second video and shared it on the social media platform X.
In the video, Trump is seen shaking hands with the former ballet dancer and saying, “Congratulations.”
“Now I understand why you worked so hard to get her out of prison,” Trump added, addressing someone off-camera.
Karelina placed her hand on her heart and expressed her gratitude to Trump, to which he responded, “It is my honor.”
Karelina also said, “It’s an honor to meet you today.”
Trump inquired about how long Karelina had been in prison.
At 33 years old, Karelina, a former ballet dancer with dual American and Russian citizenship, was arrested in Yekaterinburg, Russia, in February 2024. In August of the same year, a Russian court convicted her of treason for donating $51.8 to a U.S.-based Ukrainian charity two days before Russia formally invaded Ukraine. She was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
She was released in a prisoner exchange on April 10 and subsequently returned to the United States.
As part of Karelina’s release agreement, the U.S. released Arthur Petrov, a dual Russian-German citizen arrested in 2023 on charges of smuggling sensitive microelectronics to U.S. adversaries.
The U.S. State Department previously acknowledged that Karelina had been wrongfully detained following her arrest upon returning to Russia from a family visit.
Karelina is the second American citizen released from Russian custody since the Trump administration took office. In February of this year, Pennsylvania teacher Marc Fogel was also released from a Russian prison. He had been arrested for carrying marijuana products and was sentenced to 14 years in prison, claiming the marijuana he carried was a legal prescription drug.