US JUDGE ORDERS DISCLOSURE, SETS MARCH 27 HEARING IN RUSSIAN SCIENTIST PETROVA CASE

MOSCOW, Feb 15 (Bernama-Sputnik/RIA Novosti) -- A United States (US) federal judge in Boston has ordered prosecutors in the criminal case against Harvard researcher Kseniia Petrova to provide additional discovery and scheduled a status hearing for March 27, reported Sputnik/RIA Novosti. 

The status hearing was set to outline upcoming deadlines, as both sides continue pretrial litigation in a case expected to last about a week, according to a RIA Novosti correspondent’s review of public court records.

Petrova, a Russian-born research assistant at Harvard Medical School, has pleaded not guilty in a Boston federal case that accuses her of concealing information, making false statements, and smuggling frog embryo research samples into the US following a February 2025 airport inspection.

At the February 10 hearing, Magistrate Judge Judith Dein said prosecutors would be required to provide additional discovery while the defence continues challenging aspects of the government’s evidence and handling of the case.

With pretrial disputes still unresolved, the court has set the next key scheduling step.

“A Final Status Conference has been scheduled for March 27, 2026, at 10.30 a.m. Counsel for the respective parties shall file a Joint Memorandum no less than three business days prior to that Status Conference, before the close of business,” Judge Dein said in the ruling.

According to her December 19, 2025 motion to compel and related court filings, Petrova arrived at Logan Airport on February 16, 2025, presented a valid J-1 visa, was admitted with a J-1 entry stamp, and had an I-94 record generated during primary inspection.

The situation changed when a CBP K9 later alerted to food in her bag at baggage claim, triggering a secondary inspection that uncovered frog embryo research samples.

Officers subsequently canceled her visa and placed her in immigration detention before she was transferred to criminal custody.

Petrova was released under pretrial conditions on June 12, 2025, after prosecutors withdrew their request for detention.

In the same filing, Petrova is described as a 30-year-old Russian national and bioinformatics researcher at Harvard Medical School who was in the US on a J-1 exchange visa and returned to Boston from Paris on February 16, 2025, following a vacation in Europe.

The motion states that her Harvard supervisor, Dr Leon Peshkin, asked her to bring the frog embryo samples back from collaborators in France after the lab had previously experienced delays and losses in shipped materials.

--BERNAMA-SPUTNIK/RIA NOVOSTI