She intentionally didn’t follow proper process - we have email from her boss telling her to follow proper procedure to bring the biological samples in, she decided not to.
She then lied to customs multiple times, first by not declaring the samples, then saying she didn’t have them, then a couple other times.
I’ve dealt with similar issues (not biologics, but other stuff that requires declaration and has a well-established process).
Something very odd with her behaviour, not sure why someone well-versed in this process would behave like this.
This has nothing to do with Trump/ICE - she’s behaving strangely and lying all over the place.
True, but she’s now risking 5 to 8 years of Russian jail time, whereas a fine, or some kind of administrative sanction would have made much more sense.
Brutal, the title makes it sound like she was making a profit or something but she just didn’t know to declare her research and that’s considered smuggling wtf
An immigrant and a Harvard professor?
This is probably being gleefully followed by Trump personally.
A Russian who has opposed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Trump’s probably on the phone to Putin promising her delivery right now. It’s one less academic in the USA too - from MAGA’s perspective everybody wins!
They’re definitely throwing the whole book at her. But there’s also a small nugget of a case here. Having been through customs a few times, I think it’s clear that biological materials should be declared. In a normal situation, the infraction would lead to a long wait in the back room, a stern warning, and maybe confiscated embryos. Not felony charges.
Yeah it is not clear who or what is profiting from that smuggling. It seems more an administrative issue than a case to me.
we had to do that for some mouse tissue and its so awkward to explain. yes they’re samples, no they’re not dangerous its just wax blocks, please let me go. Yes I already said they are mutant tissue samples but they’re not dangerous… 5 hours later still spinning in circles.
Decades ago, I was stuck in an Italian airport because they didn’t like my camera’s batteries (I had spent the day shooting images of the area for a TV program). I didn’t speak Italian, they didn’t speak any of my languages. We wasted an hour on this.
Customs can be weird sometimes. It’s nothing new.
A Harvard University researcher detained by Ice for months after being accused of smuggling frog embryos into the US was indicted on Wednesday on additional criminal charges.
Kseniia Petrova, a Russian-born scientist conducting cancer research for Harvard Medical School, was indicted on Wednesday by a federal grand jury in Boston on one count of concealment of a material fact, one count of false statement and one count of smuggling goods into the United States. She had originally been charged with smuggling in May.
Petrova was stopped at Boston’s Logan airport by US authorities on her way back from France in February, over what appeared to be an irregularity in customs paperwork related to a packet from a specialist lab of superfine spliced sections of frog embryos, for research.
She was arrested and ended up in detention in Louisiana. Petrova was told her visa was being revoked and she was being deported to her native Russia, despite saying she feared persecution for opposing the invasion of Ukraine
Fuck the US government
In fascist America government fucks you!
If convicted of the smuggling charge, Petrova faces a sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. She also faces a sentence of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on the charges of concealment of material fact and false statements.
Sounds like something Russia would do.
Billionaires, burning and pillaging: lol
