Vashukevich has been held in custody since last February, when Thai
police raided the course in the sleazy seaside resort of Pattaya
Anastasia Vashukevich, known by her pen name
Nastya Rybka, has been held in custody since a police raid in the sleazy
seaside resort of Pattaya last February.
Vashukevich looked sombre as she arrived at
the court alongside her seven co-defendants, who are on trial for
multiple charges including soliciting sex.
She had travelled to Thailand after
becoming embroiled in a political scandal with Russian aluminium tycoon
Oleg Deripaska, a one-time associate of US President Trump’s disgraced
former campaign director Paul Manafort.
In a peculiar tale she set off a scramble for
details after promising to reveal “missing puzzle pieces” on claims the
Kremlin aided Trump’s 2016 election victory.
No material has been released to substantiate her claims, which critics have dismissed as a publicity stunt.
Police alleged the risque seminar, led by
self-styled Russian seduction guru Alex Kirillov, was effectively
breaching Thai decency laws.
Kirillov, who has served as a spokesperson for the mostly Russian group, told reporters he believes they were set up.
“I think somebody ordered (our arrest)… for money,” he said as he arrived at court.
The group have pleaded not guilty, saying they
were only training people on “how to seduce men and women” and not
participating in sexual activity.
Supporters of the defendants say the seminar was geared towards offering romance and relationship advice.
Vashukevich and Kirillov have expressed fear of being deported back to Russia and at one stage called on Washington for help.
But Vashukevich later blamed the US for their imprisonment.
Both Washington and Moscow have publicly shrugged off Vashukevich’s story, which the US State Department described as “bizarre”.
Vashukevich, who has penned a book about seducing oligarchs, also faced legal problems in Russia.
Deripaska won an invasion of privacy lawsuit
against her in July after a video apparently filmed by the model showed
the tycoon vacationing with an influential Russian deputy prime
minister.
Kremlin-connected Deripaska and Manafort, Donald Trump’s ex-campaign manager, did business together in the mid-2000s.
Manafort has since been convicted in the US of
financial crimes related to political work he did in Ukraine before the
2016 election as well as witness tampering.
He has also admitted to providing polling data to a Russian with intelligence ties during the 2016 presidential race.