A Belarusian escort who claimed to have information for special counsel Robert Mueller about Russian efforts to influence the outcome of the 2016 election was arrested immediately after she touched down in Moscow. She was deported from Thailand on Thursday after pleading guilty to charges of soliciting sex.
Nastya Rybka and seven other Russian and Belarusian citizens were arrested in Thailand last year for offering "sex trainings" that claimed to give any man the skills to seduce the woman of his dreams. Once in jail, the 21-year-old escort asked to be granted asylum in the U.S. in exchange for providing the special counsel with information about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Rybka claims she was once the mistress of Oleg Deripaska, a Kremlin-linked Russian oligarch whose core businesses are under U.S. sanctions.
She gained public recognition after the Russian opposition leader and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny published a video she had posted on Instagram, which showed Deripaska on a yacht with Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko. Rybka claimed she had an additional 16 hours of footage that showed Deripaska discussing the election with three unidentified Americans.
Deripaska was a close associate of President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort, who has pleaded guilty to financial crimes, violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act and witness tampering, among other crimes.
The FBI reportedly attempted to contact Rybka while she was in jail in Thailand. She later told a court reporter from The Associated Press that she had returned the evidence to Deripaska in exchange for something. Rybka had previously claimed that her life would be in danger if she were deported to Russia.
This is outrageous. Natalia Rybka is attested and brutally manhandled the moment she touched down in Moscow after being deported from Thailand. Just to remind you, she secretly taped Deripaska on his yacht with a senior Russian official talking about manipulating US politics https://t.co/45jiBeBPN7
— Bill Browder (@Billbrowder) January 18, 2019
On Friday, video emerged of her arrival in Moscow's Sheremetyovo Airport. Police immediately detained the young woman and the video shows her struggling as police attempted to put her in a wheelchair. The police told her to calm down, and her limp body is eventually led away in the wheelchair. The video was later published on Russian television.
Navalny, who often calls attention to the corruption of Russian government officials, tweeted the video with the caption: "Her guilt is great: She was a prostitute on the yacht of billionaire Deripaska and shot a video, which captured the Deputy Prime Minister Prikhodko. Now Rybka's hands are tied, and the police have no complaints about Prikhodko and Deripaska."
Rybka, whose real name is Anastasia Vashukevich, has a Belarusian passport. It is unclear why she was deported to Russia instead of Belarus.
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Cristina Maza is an award-winning journalist who has reported from countries such as Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, India, Lithuania, Serbia, and Turkey. ... Read more
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