While in a police van, ‘Nastya Rybka’ told The Associated Press that she fears for her life, and wants to exchange information on Russian ties to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign for her own personal safety
A self-proclaimed “sex-huntress” has requested asylum in the United States in exchange for evidence about “Russian government crimes” after being arrested in Thailand.
Nastya Rybka, a Belarusian whose real name is Anastasia Vashukevich, and her partner, “sex guru” Alexander Kirillov (who goes by the name of Alex Leslie), were arrested Monday along with eight Russians for running an illegal “sex training” course. The group was nabbed in a hotel meeting room in Pattaya, a seaside resort noted both for its sex trade and popularity with Russian tourists. Rybka and Leslie’s lessons were attended by approximately 40 make and female Russian tourists, many wearing T-shirts bearing the English words “Sex animator” with an arrow pointing to the wearer’s crotch. Thai news media cited police as saying that the meeting was raided because hotel staff reported hearing strange sounds.
Embroiled
Vashukevich/Rybka first popped upon the radar of close watchers of the Trump-Russia story in February, thanks to a 25-minute video by Aleksei Navalny, a Russian dissident famed for exposing corruption in his country. Navalny’s investigation claimed that Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska had acted as a messenger between U.S. President Donald Trump’s ex-campaign chief Paul Manafort and a top Kremlin foreign policy official.
According to The New York Times
last September, … a group of women in scanty bondage gear walked into the Moscow office of Navalny’s organization, the Anti-Corruption Foundation. At that very moment, journalists from a pro-Putin media outlet just happened to be passing by, and recorded their presence.
Navalny wanted to find out who the women were and who had sent them. He discovered that they were, as he put it in the video, a “mildly insane” squad of activist sex workers who specialize in weird pranks, like picketing the American Embassy naked in support of Harvey Weinstein. And one of them, Vashukevich, had lots of photographs of herself and the politically powerful Deripaska on her Instagram account.
In the jailhouse now
After their arrest, Rybka and Leslie reportedly relayed a letter requesting asylum to the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, the independent-leaning Dozhd TV news channel reported on Wednesday.
“We ask for political asylum, help and protection, as soon as possible, because we have very important information for the U.S. and our lives are very much at risk,” Dozhd TV cited Leslie as writing in the letter.
Leslie and Rybka wrote that they “fled” Russia after the political scandal surrounding Navalny’s investigation and were ready to provide video and audio evidence of “Russian government crimes” in exchange for U.S. assistance.
The two were released on bail, then re-arrested and relocated to a migrant holding center in Bangkok, Dozhd TV reported.
On Tuesday, Rybka had published a video on Instagram asking U.S. journalists for help in exchange for information about Russia’s Trump connection.
“I’m ready to reveal all of the missing puzzles that you need, with audio and video proof, about the connection between our respected deputies and Manafort, Trump and the commotion around the U.S. elections,” she said.
“If you find me in a Thai prison and I’m still alive then I’ll be happy to speak to you,” she added.
