Russian-born Harvard researcher charged with smuggling in federal court

A 31-year-old Russian national was charged with smuggling biological material after TSA at Boston's Logan Airport allegedly found clawed frog embryos and embryonic samples in her luggage.

Kseniia Petrova, a researcher at Harvard Medical School, was charged in a criminal complaint with one count of smuggling goods into the U.S., according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts. Petrova was originally detained on Feb. 16, 2025 after a law enforcement canine alerted its handler to her luggage. 

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said on Wednesday that Petrova allegedly denied having the biological material at first but later admitted to carrying it.

Prosecutors also claim that Petrova’s text messages show that she was aware that she needed a permit to bring in the clawed frog embryos and embryonic samples that were allegedly found in her luggage. In one text message exchange cited by the office, Petrova was asked whether she had a plan to get the biological material into the U.S., and she allegedly responded by saying, "No plan yet. I won’t be able to swallow them."

RUSSIAN HARVARD SCIENTIST KSENIIA PETROVA 'KNOWINGLY' SMUGGLED ILLICIT ITEMS TO US: FEDS

However, Gregory Romanovsky, the attorney representing Petrova, said on Thursday that customs experts confirmed that his client "did not need a permit to bring her non-living scientific samples that are not considered biological material under U.S. Customs law."

"Yesterday’s hearing in federal district court in Vermont confirmed that Customs and Border Patrol officials had no legal basis for canceling Kseniia’s visa and detaining her on Feb. 16.  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," Romanovsky said.

"It is an attempt by the government to justify its outrageous and legally indefensible position that this scientist working for the U.S. on cures for cancer and aging research has somehow become a danger to the community. 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." 

Petrova said in a recent New York Times op-ed that she was returning to the U.S. after vacationing in Paris when she was detained by ICE in February. She also expressed her fear of being arrested in Russia if deported, as she has been a critic of the war in Ukraine.

RUSSIAN SCIENTIST AT HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL DETAINED BY ICE AT BOSTON AIRPORT

While she admitted in the op-ed to not filling out a customs form regarding the frog embryos in her luggage, she believed it would result in a fine or warning, not an arrest.

"At Logan International Airport, I did not complete a customs declaration for frog embryos (for use in our lab’s research) in my luggage. I’m told this would normally result in a warning or a fine. Instead, my visa was revoked, and I was sent to a detention center in Louisiana," Petrova wrote.

In her op-ed, Petrova claimed that colleagues said the lab—home to the world’s only NoRI (short for Normalized Raman Imaging) microscope—"ground to a halt" after her detention. 

"Without me there to help, the lab has been unable to analyze the image data that the microscope generates," Petrova wrote.

She also claimed that several of her colleagues are afraid of having their visa status revoked and being detained, as "many" are "foreign scientists."

On Wednesday, a federal judge grilled government attorneys on their grounds for canceling Petrova’s visa and detaining her, the Times reported. The judge reportedly set a bail hearing for Petrova later this month.

Romanovsky told the NYT that he believes the government filed the criminal charge against his client "to make Kseniia look like a criminal to justify their efforts to deport her." He also said that he and his client were "blindsided by the unsealing of a meritless criminal complaint," which came after the bail hearing was set.