Escort offers Russia probe evidence in exchange for asylum

BANGKOK — A Belarusian escort with close ties to a powerful Russian oligarch said from behind bars in Bangkok on Monday that she had more than 16 hours of audio recordings that could help shed light on Russian meddling in U.S. elections.

The escort, Anastasia Vashukevich, said she would hand over the recordings if the United States granted her asylum. She faces criminal charges and deportation to Belarus after coming under suspicion of working in Thailand without a visa at a sex-training seminar in the city of Pattaya.

Vashukevich, who described herself as close to Russian aluminum tycoon Oleg Deripaska, said audio recordings she made in August 2016 included discussions he had about the United States presidential election with people she declined to identify.

Deripaska, a billionaire with close ties to Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, also has business ties to Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman. Manafort is under investigation by Robert Mueller, the special counsel looking into the campaign’s connections to Russia.

“If America gives me protection, I will tell everything I know,” Vashukevich said Monday. “I am afraid to go back to Russia. Some strange things can happen.”

Her assertion could be easy to disregard were it not for a 25-minute video investigation posted last month on YouTube by Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, which relies heavily on videos and photographs from Vashukevich.

According to her version of events, she was working for a modeling agency when she and several other models were sent to spend time on Deripaska’s yacht. She later posted photographs and videos on social media showing Deripaska and and a Russian deputy prime minister together on the yacht.

Financial records show that companies controlled by Manafort owed millions of dollars to Deripaska.