(TotalConservative.com) – Jack Barsky, an ex-KGB agent, says that the recent arrest of a dual US-Russian citizen in Russia is business as usual and “nothing new” for the Kremlin under the leadership of President Vladimir Putin.
In January, a ballerina named Ksenia Karelina was arrested in Yekaterinburg while traveling there to see family and was arrested by Russian authorities and charged with treason. According to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), they detained Karelina, charging her with treason because she allegedly donated money to a charity helping to support Ukraine’s war effort against the Kremlin. According to US officials, they did not find out about Karelina’s arrest until Thursday, February 8.
Karelina was a dual citizen of the US and Russia and lived and worked in Beverly Hills, California. The Ciel Spa in Beverly Hills, where she worked, put out a statement on Feb. 20 calling for Karelina’s release and clarifying that she traveled to Yekaterinburg to visit her younger sister, her parents, and her grandmother. The statement also said Karelina was charged with treason for donating $51.80 to a US charity supporting Ukraine.
Barsky appeared on “The Story” and said that Karelina was most likely arrested in Russia in order to “scare more people,” which he said is what Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to do. The ex-KGB agent said Putin wants to “scare everybody,” meaning not just “his own citizens” but “the world.” Barsky said that Americans being arrested in Russia “is nothing new,” which he said has been happening since “Stalin’s time.” He added that the Russian government views American prisoners as assets to be traded.
In 2022, President Joe Biden organized a prisoner swap with Russia to free Brittney Griner, a WNBA basketball player, in exchange for an arms dealer named Viktor Bout. Griner was detained for drug possession and sentenced to nine years in a Russian penal colony.
Putin was also asked about a US journalist for the Wall Street Journal, Evan Gershkovich, by former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in his first Western media interview. Carlson asked Putin if he would release Gershkovich then and there as a sign of “goodwill.” The Russian president denied the request but hinted he was open to a prisoner exchange.
Whether or not Karelina will be used by the Kremlin to barter an exchange is unclear. Eleonora Srebroski, her ex-mother-in-law, said she is concerned for Karelina, knowing that “a lot of physical” and “mental abuse” happens in Russian jails.” She told FOX11 that if America doesn’t help her, “nobody else will,” describing the ballerina as “sweet” and “always positive.”
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