A Russian scientist working at Harvard Medical School who was nabbed by ICE three months ago has been charged with trying to smuggle frog embryos into the US, federal prosecutors said.
Kseniia Petrova, a research associate at the Ivy League school, has been held at an ICE facility ever since she was nabbed after flying into Boston’s international airport with the stash of embryos back in February.
The 31-year-old Russian, who had just come back from a vacation in Paris, initially denied having to declare anything when probed by Customs and Border Protection, the feds allege.
Russian-born scientist Kseniia Petrova was a researcher at Harvard University before she was detained. APA search of her duffle bag allegedly uncovered a foam box containing clawed frog embryos in microcentrifuges, as well as embryonic samples in paraffin well stages and on mounted dyed slides, prosecutors said.
Petrova later allegedly admitted to carrying biological material but claimed she didn’t know she was required to declare it.
Text messages recovered from her phone showed that a colleague had told her she’d need to declare the goods, according to prosecutors.
“If you bring samples or antibody back, make sure you get the permission etc. Like that link I sent to leon-/group chat about frog embryos because TSA went through my bags at customs in Boston,” one text read, according to a criminal complaint.
“What is your plan to pass the American Customs with samples? This is the most delicate place of the trajectory,” another text read.
Kseniia Petrova conducting research at Harvard University in an undated photo provided in April 2025. APPetrova allegedly responded: “No plan yet. I won’t be able to swallow them.”
Her research visa was immediately revoked after she was detained.
She has been held at an immigration detention facility in Louisiana ever since.
In additional to deportation, Petrova faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of smuggling goods into the US.
Harvard University’s Business School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on April 15, 2025. REUTERSHer lawyer, Gregory Romanovsky, ripped the case as “meritless” – arguing the criminal charges were filed just hours after she faced an immigration detention hearing Wednesday.
“[The] hearing in federal district court in Vermont confirmed that Customs and Border Patrol officials had no legal basis for cancelling Kseniia’s visa and detaining her on Feb. 16,” he said in a statement.
“Less than two hours after the Vermont judge set a hearing on Kseniia’s release she was suddenly transferred from ICE to criminal custody. This is not a coincidence.
“It is an attempt by the government to justify its outrageous and legally indefensible position that this scientist working for the US on cures for cancer and aging research has somehow become a danger to the community,” the attorney continued.
“The government confirmed in court yesterday its intent to deport Kseniia to Russia, where it knows she will face grave danger for opposing the Putin regime.”
