Russian escort offers info on Trump in exchange for U.S. protection

The woman at the center of a sexually charged political firestorm involving U.S.-Russian relations was arrested in Thailand while teaching a course on seduction, in a case she claims was trumped up by Moscow to punish her.

Anastasia Vashukevich, a self-described sex instructor and “huntress” who goes by the name Nastya Rybka, issued a plea via her Instagram on Tuesday to American intelligence services and journalists to intervene on her behalf in exchange for information she claims to have about Russia and U.S. President Donald Trump, ahead of her looming extradition back to Russia.

“Please USA, help us not to die from Russians!,” she posted. In a clip apparently shot from the back of a moving police van in Thailand, she claimed to be prepared to disclose links between Russia, Trump and Trump’s ex-campaign manager Paul Manafort and the “frenzy around the American elections. I know a lot.”

Vashukevich, who has worked as an escort, is a key player in an ongoing feud between Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and authorities in Moscow over an investigative documentary video Navalny says proves corrupt dealing between oligarch Oleg Deripaska and a top Kremlin official.

That 25-minute video, posted earlier this month to YouTube, purports to show Deripaska — a billionaire with ties to Manafort — taking a three-day pleasure cruise on a yacht off the coast of Norway in the company of Vashukevich and Russian deputy prime minister Sergei Prikhodko. Navalny said the lavish entertainment amounted to a “bribe” by the oligarch.

Navalny also pointed to the well-known ties between Manafort and Deripaska to suggest the meeting may have been one link in a chain between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, which has been accused of meddling in the U.S. 2016 election. But while an audio clip indicates the two men did mention U.S.-Russian relations, it provides no direct evidence that they discussed the U.S. election.

Deripaska has denied any wrongdoing, calling the allegations “the result of a planned campaign aiming to damage my reputation,” on his own Instagram. And Prikhodko called Navalny a "political loser."

The documentary, which draws heavily on Vashukevich’s social media to paint a picture of that three-day trip, thrust the social media provocateur into the spotlight. At first, she seemed to revel in the attention, asking her 90,000 Instagram followers whether she should remove content related to the controversial documentary, and posting calls for porn producers to help her star in “the best porno in the entire history of the porn industry.”

Deripasaka soon won an injunction from a Russian court that prompted Russia’s media regulator to order Instagram to remove some of Vashukevich’s posts, which the company quickly did. A similar order concerning Navalny’s YouTube video is still yet to be resolved.

When Navalny’s video was released, Vashukevich appeared to be staying in a luxury hotel in Dubai. Then she traveled to Thailand for the “training.”

On Sunday, Thai police burst into the seduction class being led by Vashukevich and a Russian man who goes by the name Alex Lesley in a hotel in the beach resort of Pattaya, according to Thai media reports.

Special Branch officer Dullayapat Techapornyasin told Thai press the cops received a tip from a “Russian police informant,” who had supposedly been given video clips from inside the teaching session from an unhappy “student” who felt the $700 lessons were “not worth it.”

“There were two women. They are models. They did things…. Let’s say if the video got out, the public would not be able to accept it,” Dullayapat was quoted as saying about the footage. “They were in an obscene manner. In some parts, the lower parts of their bodies could be seen.”

Ten instructors were detained on charges of working without permits, Thai press said. In a clip of the bust circulating online, some of those present are dressed in shirts emblazoned with the words “Sex Animator” above a big, red arrow pointing downward.

Friends of Vashukevich and Alex Lesley (real name Alexander Kirillov), who spoke to VICE News by phone from Thailand, said the two are being kept in "terrible" conditions.

Pavlo Yunko, 32, a U.S. citizen who said he visited both Vashukevich and Kirillov in jail, said he expects both to be deported to Russia in the coming days.

"Alex and Anastasia were set up," Yunko told VICE News. "Now time is running out. We're asking the U.S. to try to stop their deportation, to put it on hold, and to give them political asylum.”

Russia’s ambassador to Thailand, Vladimir Sosnov, told Russian state media outlet RIA Novosti that Vashukevich and Lesley had simply been detained while “participating in an illegal training,” and that Thai police had informed him they would face “court and then deportation.”