US Justice Department drops smuggling case against Russian researcher Kseniia Petrova over frog embryos
A federal judge has granted prosecutors' request to dismiss the criminal case against Kseniia Petrova, the Russian researcher at Harvard University who was detained in 2025 after being accused of smuggling frog embryos into the United States.
Petrova was detained by customs agents at Boston's Logan International Airport in February 2025 for carrying undeclared biological samples. She was held in immigration custody as the Trump administration moved to revoke hundreds of student visas.
The Justice Department charged Petrova in May 2025 over what it described as noninfectious and non-toxic frog embryos. She was ordered released from custody a month later, while the charges against her remained in place.
In court filings on Tuesday, prosecutors said continuing the prosecution would divert significant time and attention from more substantial federal interests. They wrote that, at this stage, the resource costs of continuing the prosecution outweigh the public interest in its resolution.
William Fick, an attorney representing Petrova, told ABC News that the Justice Department should never have brought what he called this highly unusual smuggling prosecution. He said two federal judges had decided that the circumstances warranted further investigation into whether Homeland Security and the Justice Department unfairly targeted Petrova.
Fick said that although that important question would not yet be answered, they were pleased the Justice Department had finally reached the appropriate conclusion and asked the court to immediately dismiss all criminal charges against Petrova.
While being held in a Louisiana detention facility, Petrova told ABC News she believed her detention was too harsh. She said something seemed completely out of control and that her case was an example of how the system does not work.
