A U.S.-Russian dual national imprisoned in Russia on treason charges was freed Thursday in exchange for a Russian man jailed on smuggling charges in the U.S., a prisoner swap that comes as Moscow and Washington have made efforts to repair ties.

Ksenia Karelina, also identified in the media as Ksenia Khavana, is “on a plane back home to the United States,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post on social media platform X. She was arrested in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg in February 2024 and convicted of treason on charges stemming from a donation of about $52 to a charity aiding Ukraine. American authorities have called the case “absolutely ludicrous.”

Russia’s Federal Security Service, the country’s main security and counterespionage agency, said that dual Russian-German citizen Arthur Petrov was released as part of a swap. Petrov was arrested in Cyprus in August 2023 at the request of the U.S. on charges of smuggling sensitive microelectronics to Russia and extradited to the U.S. a year later.

Karelina was among a growing number of Americans arrested in Russia in recent years as tensions between Moscow and Washington spiked over the war in Ukraine. Her release is the latest in a series of high-profile prisoner exchanges Russia and the United States carried out in the last three years — and the second since President Donald Trump took office less than three months ago and reversed Washington’s policy of isolating Russia in an effort to end the war in Ukraine.

Russian and U.S. diplomats are sitting down Thursday for another round of talks in Istanbul on improving diplomatic ties.

In February, Russia released American teacher Marc Fogel, imprisoned on drug charges, in what the White House described as a diplomatic thaw that could advance peace negotiations. That same month, Russia released another American just days after arresting him on drug smuggling charges.

Karelina, a former ballet dancer, reportedly obtained U.S. citizenship after marrying an American and moving to Los Angeles. She was arrested when she returned to Russia to visit her family last year.

The Federal Security Service, or FSB, accused her of “proactively” collecting money for a Ukrainian organization that was supplying gear to Kyiv’s forces. The First Department, a Russian rights group, said the charges stemmed from a $51.80 donation to a U.S. charity aiding Ukraine.

“I am overjoyed to hear that the love of my life, Ksenia Karelina is on her way home from wrongful detention in Russia,” Karelina’s fiancé, Chris van Heerden, said in a statement. “She has endured a nightmare for 15 months and I cannot wait to hold her. Our dog, Boots, is also eagerly awaiting her return.”

He thanked Trump and Trump administration envoys, as well as prominent public figures who had championed her case.

Karelina’s lawyer Mikhail Mushailov said she was flying to the U.S. after a prisoner swap in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

The FSB said in a statement that Russian President Vladimir Putin had pardoned Karelina before the swap. It said that Petrov, who was facing a 20-year prison term in the U.S., was exchanged for Karelina at the Abu Dhabi international airport with the UAE mediation.

The agency released a video that showed Karelina being escorted to a plane somewhere in Russia and featured of what appeared to be the scene of exchange at the Abu Dhabu airport. The same video showed Petrov undergoing medical checkups on a flight to Russia and saying he was feeling normal.

FILE – Ksenia Karelina, also known as Khavana sits in a glass cage in a court room in Yekaterinburg, Russia, Thursday, June 20, 2024. (AP Photo, File)

Petrov was accused by the U.S. Justice Department of involvement in a scheme to procure microelectronics subject to U.S. export controls on behalf of a Russia-based supplier of critical electronic components for the country’s weapons industries.

The exchange was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, citing a statement from CIA director John Ratcliffe, who it said was on hand for the swap at an airport in Abu Dhabi.

An email seeking comment was sent to the CIA in the early hours of Thursday.

Abu Dhabi was the scene of another high-profile prisoner swap between Russia and the United States. In December 2022, American basketball star Brittney Griner was traded for the notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

The UAE has been a mediator in prisoner swaps between Russia and Ukraine, while the skyscraper-studded city of Dubai has become home to many Russians and Ukrainian who fled there after the start of Moscow’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

By BERNARD CONDON, Associated Press Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — When Donald Trump offered some financial advice Wednesday morning, stocks were wavering between gains and losses.

But that was about to change.

“THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT,” he wrote on his social media platform Truth Social at 9:37 a.m.

Less than four hours later, Trump announced a 90-day pause on nearly all his tariffs. Stocks soared on the news, closing up 9.5% by the end of trading. The market, measured by the S&P 500, gained back about $4 trillion, or 70%, of the value it had lost over the previous four trading days.

It was a prescient call by the president. Maybe too prescient.

President Donald Trump is displayed on a television on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

“He’s loving this, this control over markets, but he better be careful,” said Trump critic and former White House ethics lawyer, Richard Painter, noting that securities law prohibits trading on insider information or helping others do so. “The people who bought when they saw that post made a lot of money.”

The question is, Was Trump already contemplating the tariff pause when he made that post?

Asked about when he arrived at his decision, Trump gave a muddled answer.

“I would say this morning,” he said. “Over the last few days, I’ve been thinking about it.”

He then added, “Fairly early this morning.”

Asked for clarification on the timing in an email to the White House later, a spokesperson didn’t answer directly but defended Trump’s post as part of his job.

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“It is the responsibility of the President of the United States to reassure the markets and Americans about their economic security in the face of nonstop media fearmongering,” wrote White House spokesman Kush Desai.

Another curiosity of the posting was Trump’s signoff with his initials.

DJT is also the stock symbol for Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company of the president’s social media platform Truth Social.

It’s not clear if Trump was saying buying stocks in general, or Trump Media in particular. The White House was asked, but didn’t address that either. Trump includes “DJT” on his posts intermittently, typically to emphasize that he has personally written the message.

The ambiguity about what Trump meant didn’t stop people from pouring money into that stock.

Trump Media closed up 22.67%, soaring twice as much as the broader market, a stunning performance by a company that lost $400 million last year and is seemingly unaffected by whether tariffs would be imposed or paused.

Trump’s 53% ownership stake in the company, now in a trust controlled by his oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., rose by $415 million on the day.

Trump Media was bested, albeit by only two-hundreds of a percentage point, by another Trump administration stock pick — Elon Musk’s Tesla.

Last month, Trump held an extraordinary news conference outside the White House praising the company and its cars. That was followed by a Fox TV appearance by his commerce secretary urging viewers to buy the stock.

Tesla’s surge Wednesday added $20 billion to Musk’s fortunes.

Kathleen Clark, a government ethics law expert at Washington University School of Law, says Trump’s post in other administrations would have been investigated, but is not likely not to trigger any reaction, save for maybe more Truth Social viewers.

“He’s sending the message that he can effectively and with impunity manipulate the market,” she said, “As in: Watch this space for future stock tips.”

By LORNE COOK and DAVID McHUGH, Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s executive commission said Thursday it will put retaliation measures on hold for 90 days to match President Donald Trump’s pause on his sweeping new tariffs on global trading partners and leave room for a negotiated solution.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the commission, which handles trade for the bloc’s 27 member countries, “took note of the announcement by President Trump.”

New tariffs on $23 billion of US goods will be put on hold for 90 days because “we want to give negotiations a chance,” she said in a statement.

But she warned: “If negotiations are not satisfactory, our countermeasures will kick in.”

Trump imposed a 20% levy on goods from the EU as part of his onslaught of tariffs of 10% and upward against global trading partners but said Wednesday he will pause them for 90 days to give countries a chance to negotiate solutions to U.S. trade concerns.

Countries subject to the pause will face Trump’s 10% baseline tariff.

Before Trump’s announcement, EU member countries voted to approve a set of retaliatory tariffs on $23 billion in goods in response to his 25% tariffs on imported steel and aluminum that took effect in March. The EU, the largest trading partner of the U.S., described them as “unjustified and damaging.”

The EU tariffs were set to go into effect in stages, some on April 15 and others on May 15 and Dec. 1. The EU commission didn’t immediately provide a list of the goods.

Members of the EU — the world’s largest trading bloc — have said they prefer a negotiated deal to resolve a trade war that damages the economies on both sides. The bloc’s top trade official has shuttled between Brussels and Washington for weeks trying to head off a conflict.

The targeted goods are a tiny fraction of the $1.8 trillion in U.S.-EU annual trade. Some 4.4 billion euros in goods and services crosses the Atlantic each day in what the European Commission calls “the most important commercial relationship in the world.”

The EU has targeted smaller lists of goods in hopes of exerting political pressure and avoiding economic damage from a wider escalation of tit-for-tat tariffs.

The EU is also working on a further set of countermeasures in response to Trump’s blanket 20% tariff on all European goods, now suspended. That could include measures aimed at U.S. tech companies and the services sector as well as trade in goods.

Still, von der Leyen said that Europe intends to diversify its trade partnerships.

She said that the EU will continue “engaging with countries that account for 87% of global trade and share our commitment to a free and open exchange of goods, services, and ideas,” and to lift barriers to commerce inside its own single market.

“Together, Europeans will emerge stronger from this crisis,” von der Leyen said.

McHugh reported from Frankfurt, Germany

Today is Thursday, April 10, the 100th day of 2025. There are 265 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On April 10, 1998, the Northern Ireland peace talks concluded as negotiators signed the Good Friday Agreement, a landmark settlement to end 30 years of bitter rivalries and bloody attacks.

Also on this date:

In 1866, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was founded in New York by Henry Bergh.

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Today in History: April 6, United States enters World War I

In 1912, the British liner RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton, England, bound for New York on its ill-fated maiden voyage.

In 1919, Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata was assassinated by forces loyal to President Venustiano Carranza.

In 1963, the nuclear submarine USS Thresher (SSN-593) sank during deep-diving tests east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, killing all 129 aboard.

In 1971, the U.S. table tennis team arrived in China at the invitation of the communist government for a goodwill visit that came to be known as “ping-pong diplomacy.”

In 2019, scientists released the first image ever made of a black hole, revealing a fiery, doughnut-shape object in a galaxy 55 million light-years from earth.

Today’s Birthdays:

Labor leader-activist Dolores Huerta is 95.
Football Hall of Famer Mel Blount is 77.
Author Anne Lamott is 71.
Actor Peter MacNicol is 71.
Singer-producer Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds is 66.
Musician Brian Setzer is 66.
Singer Kenny Lattimore is 55.
Rapper-producer Q-Tip (A Tribe Called Quest) is 55.
Actor David Harbour is 50.
Singer Shemekia Copeland is 46.
Actor Charlie Hunnam is 45.
Actor-singer Mandy Moore is 41.
Actor Haley Joel Osment is 37.
Country musician Maren Morris is 35.
Actor-singer AJ Michalka (mish-AL’-kah) is 34.
Actor Daisy Ridley is 33.
Singer-actor Sofia Carson is 32.