Belarusian model who claimed Trump info arrested in Moscow
MOSCOW (AP) — A Belarusian model who claimed last year that she had evidence of Russian interference in the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president was arrested immediately upon her arrival in Moscow on Thursday following deportation from Thailand.
Moscow police said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies that Anastasia Vashukevich was detained in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on charges of inducement to prostitution along with three people deported alongside her.
Vashukevich, who has been in a Thai prison since February last year, was given a suspended sentenced on Tuesday and ordered to be deported after she pleaded guilty to soliciting and conspiracy along with several co-defendants in a case related to holding a sex training seminar in Thailand.
Vashukevich, also known on social media as Nastya Rybka, earlier claimed to have recordings of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska talking about interference in the 2016 U.S. election, but never released them.
Deripaska is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and also had a working relationship with Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager who was investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller and convicted last year of tax and bank fraud.
Russian news agencies said that four of the seven people deported from Thailand who arrived in Moscow Thursday were detained, including Vashukevich and Alexander Kirillov, her mentor in the sex training business. They may face up to six years in prison if convicted on charges of inducement to prostitution.
In the early stages of their detention in Thailand, the sex training group sent a note to the U.S. Embassy via an intermediary seeking help and political asylum. Vashukevich indicated she would turn over the recordings she claimed to have if the U.S. could help secure her release, but she later withdrew the offer, suggesting that she and Deripaska had reached an agreement.