On Wednesday, June 25, a federal grand jury in Boston indicted Kseniia Petrova, a Russian scientist employed by Harvard University, on new charges of lying to customs officials at Logan International Airport. Petrova was taken into custody on February 16, 2025, on suspicion of smuggling frog embryos into the United States from France. Smuggling carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, while concealment and making false statements are punishable by up to five years in prison. Both offenses also carry potential supervised release and maximum fines of $250,000.

On June 12, after almost four months in federal detention centers, Petrova was freed on bail by a magistrate judge in Boston.

According to a press release published by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts, Petrova initially told Boston Customs and Border Protection agents that she wasn’t carrying any biological material. She also allegedly claimed during an interview under oath that she didn’t know she was required to declare the embryos when entering the United States, though text messages on her phone show that a colleague had informed her that a declaration was required in this case.

Further reading

• ‘Kseniia’s in danger’ ICE detained a Harvard scientist. Now she faces deportation to Russia, where she fears persecution for her anti-war views.

Kseniia Petrova, a Russian citizen, told officials that she would face political persecution for her anti-war and anti-Kremlin statements if deported to Russia. Petrova was transporting the biological samples from an associated laboratory in France at the behest of her supervising researcher at Harvard Medical School.