'SHE NO THREAT TO ANYONE'

When SA boxer Chris van Heerden's Russian girlfriend went to visit her parents she was thrown in jail and accused of treasonnow he's in a fight to free her

- RICHARD VAN RENSBURG

AS AN international boxing champ, he’s taken his share of punches. But none has been as devastating as the fight Chris van Heerden is in to free his girlfriend from a Russian prison.

Chris (37), who is originally from Me yer ton i n Johannesburg, met Russian-born American ballerinaturned-aesthetician Ksenia Karelina (32) in Los Angeles, where they both live, and after five months together he knew he wanted to propose.

“Everything about her told me that she’s the one,” he tells YOU from his home in Venice Beach.

But now the woman he loves is in jail in Russia.

At the beginning of the year Ksenia travelled to the country of her birth to visit her family and was accused of treason and arrested. Her crime? She’d donated $51 (R867) to a charity supporting Ukraine, with whom Russia is at war.

Ksenia went on trial in June and on 15 August was found guilty of high treason and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Chris, who’s been pushing for her to be sent home to the US for the past eight months, was stunned. “I’m still sitting here processing what’s happening,” he told CBS News on the day she was sentenced. “Ksenia should be home.” 

They met at the end of 2020 through mutual friends, but things only got serious in August last year, Chris says.

“She’s so beautiful. And she’s funny. She makes me laugh.”

Ksenia grew up in Yekaterinburg in Russia and at the age of 20 she moved to the US, where she joined a ballet academy in Maryland. But she had to give up her ballet dream due to injuries and moved to LA, where she became a beauty aesthetician.

Sparks flew between them, Chris says. “She makes the most of every day. She lives life to the fullest. I realised, wow, this girl is amazing. And she’s as fond of my dog, Boots, as I am.”