An ex-KGB agent says each American that Putin can imprison is ‘an asset you could commerce’ as Moscow detains a US ballerina

• Russia’s imprisoning of US residents as bargaining chips is “nothing new,” an ex-KGB agent mentioned.

• Jack Barsky advised Fox that this offers Moscow an “asset you could commerce.”

• Ksenia Karelina, a US-Russian ballerina, is the newest American citizen to be detained by Russia.

Each US citizen detained by Russia provides the Kremlin an “asset you could commerce,” ex-KGB agent Jack Barsky mentioned.

Barsky, a former sleeper agent for Soviet intelligence within the Nineteen Seventies and Eighties, advised Fox Information’ Martha MacCallum on Monday that the observe of arresting Individuals for this objective is “nothing new.”

“That occurred throughout Stalin’s time, right through at the moment. As a result of, you already know, an American in jail is an asset you could commerce,” mentioned Barsky on MacCallum’s “The Story.“

Barsky, who labored with the FBI and NSA after being found, was commenting on the detaining of Kseniya Karelina, a US-Russian ballerina who was arrested on February 21.

Karelina, 33, is accused of donating to a Ukrainian group and was stopped by Russian authorities whereas touring from Los Angeles to Yekaterinburg, the Russian Federal Service Bureau said.

She was visiting her grandmother, and her employer, Ciel Spa Beverly Hills, mentioned she donated $51.80.

“What actually makes me shake my head, the brutality with which they proceed towards this younger girl, after which they exit in public and say it is $50,” mentioned Barsky.

Recent Russian state TV footage confirmed a blindfolded and handcuffed Karelina being escorted inside a detention facility and being held behind bars.

Karelina is amongst no less than three different US residents identified to be detained in Russia.

Two of them, Wall Avenue Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and marine veteran Paul Whelan, are categorised as wrongfully detained by the US State Division. The third is trainer Robert Woodland Romanov, who was arrested in January.

“There’s nothing that is being executed that is not managed by Putin, being executed on this realm,” Barsky mentioned, including that he believes the Russian chief intends to “scare extra folks” with the imprisonments.

“Scare all people, the world in addition to the Russians, his personal residents,” Barsky mentioned.

In December 2022, WNBA star Britney Griner was free of a Russian jail in trade for infamous arms supplier Viktor Bout, also referred to as the “Service provider of Dying.”

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