Boyfriend of LA ballerina detained in Russia reveals heartbreak at buying her ticket

The boyfriend of a ballerina who has been detained in Russia has spoken of his guilt at buying her plane ticket to go and visit her family, a trip which ended in her being detained in a Russian jail cell on treason charges.

Ksenia Karelina, also known as Ksenia Khavana, was arrested in late January on public disorder charges while outside a cinema in Yekaterinburg.

This month, she was charged with treason, according to Russian human rights activists, and appears to be confined to a Russian jail for allegedly sending $51.80 to a Ukrainian charity.

“I thought it might be dangerous for her to go, with everything going on with the war in Ukraine, but she reassured me that she was Russian and that everything would be fine,” Chris Van Heerden told The Los Angeles Times.

“So, for her birthday in December, I bought her a ticket. She was so excited. Now, I am hitting myself over the head about it.”

Mr Van Heerden, a South African professional boxer known as ‘The Heat,’ told the newspaper that his girlfriend flew to Russia using her Russian passport after the couple both went to Istanbul to celebrate New Year’s together. Mr Van Heerden flew back to the US.

Ms Karelina, who became a US citizen in 2021, told her boyfriend that she missed her family and wanted to go to Russia to visit them.

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However, when she arrived in the country on 2 January, according to Mr Van Heerden, Ms Karelina faced hours of questioning by Russian authorities, as well as her phone being taken away from her.

He told the Times that she was ordered to stay in Yekaterinburg, and told to check in weekly with Russia’s security agency, the Federal Security Service.

Initially, the couple kept in touch by Ms Karelina using her mothers’s phone.

However, in late January, Karelina said she was going to leave her family home to meet government officials to get her phone back but never returned, the outlet reported.

According to Russian media, Ms Karelina was originally accused of "petty hooliganism,” with court officials saying she had used "coarse, obscene language in front of other citizens, and was behaving rudely and defiantly."

The officials further claimed that she violently resisted arrest. On 29 January, she was reportedly found guilty and sentenced to 14 days in jail.

Things appeared to change after she filed a complaint about her arrest with the court. The FSB now claims that she donated money to Razom, a Ukrainian aid charity based in New York City, on the day of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

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Now, Mr Van Heerden has been separated from his girlfriend and is “struggling to understand how Ksenia was gone and worried about when she would get back,” he told the Times.

“I have spoken to the State Department. I have spoken to anybody I can,” he added. “We are trying everything.”

He told the outlet that he received a letter from Ms Karelina last week, written in Russian, that was sent to one of her friends, who scanned it and sent it to Mr Van Heerden.

Using a translator to decipher the letter, Mr Van Heerden said it included sentiments from his girlfriend, such as “‘I’m sorry for putting you in this position. I’m sorry for the pain’.”

While he told the newspaper that she was not an activist nor political, and even avoided talking about the war in Ukraine due to its sensitivity, she said she was “so proud to be Russian.”

“She had love and friends from everywhere and respect for everyone,” he said. “I believe she made a donation. That is true. But she is not an activist.”

Karelina’s former mother-in-law Eleonara Srebroski, 56, spoke to The Independent, and while she declined to discuss the details of Karelina’s alleged donation, spoke on her character.

"She’s just that kind of person. If somebody needs help, she will be helping. Whether it’s an animal, a child, or a grown-up, she’s the one who is always opening her heart and her wallet, Ms Srebroski said.