An escort from Belarus who claimed to have information on Russian interference in U.S. elections was released Tuesday from police custody in Moscow.
Anastasia Vashukevich, who is featured in video footage aboard Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska’s yacht, was detained last week on prostitution charges. She was arrested upon her arrival at the Sheremetyevo Airport, which was captured on video and posted online.
The footage caught the attention of Russian anti-corruption campaigner Aleksei Navalny. He has accused Deripaska of being behind Vachukevich’s arrest.
Vashukevich was arrested in Thailand in 2018 with seven others and pleaded guilty to charges of solicitation and conspiracy stemming from her participation in a sex-training seminar. She and the others were sentenced to 18 months behind bars, but they were released to fulfill the rest of their sentence on parole.
According to Vashukevich’s lawyer Svetlana Sidorkina, Vashukevich is still a suspect in a case concerning “enticement to prostitution,” according to TASS, Russia’s state-run news outlet.
Vashukevich, who wrote a book called Who Wants to Seduce a Billionaire, has claimed that she was involved in an affair with Deripaska and had audio recordings exposing President Trump’s alleged ties to Russia. After she was arrested in 2018, Vashukevich said she was willing to exchange the recordings in order to receive asylum in the U.S.
Deripaska, who has rejected allegations of an affair with Vashukevich, previously was a business associate of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and has been sanctioned by the U.S.
Manafort pleaded guilty in September to charges brought against him by special counsel Robert Mueller — one count of conspiracy against the U.S. and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice. He has agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department and Mueller’s investigation, which is examining Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin.
