Russian Scientist Jails in US for French Frog Embryos

A Russian scientist is being held in a US immigration jail accused of smuggling frog embryos into the US. Ksenia Petrova, a Harvard scientist arrested in February, faces deportation from the US, with her lawyer calling the case "baseless".

A Harvard scientist who has been held in U.S. immigration custody for months was charged Wednesday with smuggling frog embryos into the United States and faces possible deportation.

According to The Guardian, Ksenia Petrova, a Russian academic and research fellow at Harvard University, was initially detained by immigration authorities in February after attempting to enter the United States at Boston's Logan International Airport.

In a May 14 press release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts said the smuggling charges could carry a prison sentence of up to 20 years and a fine of up to $250,000. The releases claim that Petrova’s text messages show she knew about the requirement to declare the embryos before entering the United States. Petrova has spent the past three months in a Louisiana detention center.

Petrova's lawyer, Grigory Romanovsky, called the case "baseless" and questioned the timing of her transfer to custody, saying it came after the judge in her lawsuit scheduled a bail hearing for May 28 to consider her release.

“The charge, brought three months after the alleged customs violation, is clearly intended to portray Ksenia as a criminal in order to justify their efforts to deport her,” the lawyer said in a statement.

Petrova detailed her research and detention experiences in a New York Times op-ed this week. Petrova said she left Russia after the conflict in Ukraine began and found a “science haven” at Harvard Medical School in 2023. Petrova, who has also spoken out against Russia’s leadership on social media, said she feared being deported to Russia because of her political views.

Petrova's research focuses on aging and cell chemistry, which she says could "pave the way for healthier lifespans and treatments for diseases like Alzheimer's and cancer."

Petrova wrote that without her help, her colleagues' research at Harvard "has stalled."

Petrova's Harvard adviser, Leon Peshkin, praised her research, saying that at the time news of her arrest broke she was "impressive: the best I've ever seen in 20 years at Harvard."

Petrova is among a number of non-citizen academics who have been arrested by the Trump administration or are facing deportation, The Guardian notes. Her case also stands out because, unlike many others, she was not accused of publicly protesting Israel’s killing of civilians in Gaza.

Petrova's article also details other prisoners she met in Louisiana: the fiancé of an American citizen awaiting trial in October, a woman who was denied asylum and deported from her daughter, who has legal status. She concludes with a look at her lab work.

"I hope that on Wednesday the judge will rule on my release so that I can go back to my lab. There is a data set that I am halfway through analyzing. I want to go home and finish it," Petrova said.