Escort Says Audio Recordings Prove Russian Meddling in U.S. Election

[riversedge]

Source: nytimes



Richard C. Paddock
March 5, 2018



BANGKOK — A Belarusian escort with close ties to a powerful Russian oligarch said from behind bars in Bangkok on Monday that she had more than 16 hours of audio recordings that could help shed light on Russian meddling in United States elections.

The escort, Anastasia Vashukevich, said she would hand over the recordings if the United States granted her asylum. She faces criminal charges and deportation to Belarus after coming under suspicion of working in Thailand without a visa at a sex-training seminar in the city of Pattaya.

Ms. Vashukevich, who described herself as close to the Russian aluminum tycoon Oleg V. Deripaska, said that audio recordings she made in August 2016 included discussions he had about the United States presidential election with people she declined to identify.

Mr. Deripaska, a billionaire with close ties to Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, also has business ties to Paul J. Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman. Mr. Manafort is under investigation by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel looking into the campaign’s connections to Russia.

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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/05/world/asia/nastya-rybka-trump-putin.html

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We should bring her here and see what she has:

“If America gives me protection, I will tell everything I know,” Ms. Vashukevich said on Monday. “I am afraid to go back to Russia. Some strange things can happen.”.....

Link to tweet

Kirillov, left, the organizer of a sex seminar in Thailand, and Anastasia Vashukevich, center, a Belarusian escort, spoke to journalists from a detention center in Bangkok. Ms. Vashukevich claims to have recordings that prove Russian meddling in the American election. Sakchai Lalit/Associated Press

[lagomorph777]

1. Could Mueller extradite her from Thailand?

Assuming he thinks she actually has anything?

[TranssexualKaren]

11. An escort is unlikely to make a very credible witness....

She would have to have some extremely incriminating evidence to be useful.

[Grins]

14. A recording might! And if it confirms any part of info Mueller already has...!

[democratisphere]

2. Hope the intelligence people are all over this situation before the Russians

get a hold of her. Obtaining this evidence could be crucial to Mueller's case(s).

[DetlefK]

3. If Russia gets her, she will end up like Magnitsky:

She will mysteriously die in jail without ever seeing a court-room.

[LonePirate]

4. I do not see this administration giving her asylum to provide evidence against 45.

Mueller will need to go after her on his own and hopefully she cooperates, provided any evidence she had isn’t already destroyed or compromised.

[thesquanderer]

13. If she's got the goods on Trump, maybe Mexico would grant her asylum! (n/t)

[Golden Raisin]

5. If what she says is true she may find herself

"falling" from a 4th story window, or dining on polonium-filled blini.

[bluestarone]

6. i'm thinking if we have full video and audio(PROOF) NOBODY on repub side will do a fucking thing!!!

[BumRushDaShow]

9. Basically.

[gibraltar72]

7. I find it curious

that this has been out there for about a week now. If there is any credibility why is she not now in our custody, or dead?

[riversedge]

10. I think I read about it a few days ago??the source. She has to apply to the US for asylum....

.....Ms. Vashukevich described being held in a crowded cell with more than 100 women and only three toilets. She said a Thai official had asked her to sign a paper saying that she believed she would be safe in Russia, but that she had refused.

In general, people seeking asylum must apply in the country where they hope to take refuge.

A spokeswoman for the American Embassy in Bangkok said she was aware of the arrests but declined to discuss the case or any asylum request.

Mr. Kirillov said that he believed publicity would help protect them. “I think the press makes us a little bit safer because if they killed us in the prison, everyone would know,” he said.

[uncle ray]

16. i think you're thinking of the OTHER jailed escort.

i can't remember her name, and can't find it in my browser history, but it was a different girl last week. the circumstances are similar, so they must have been part of the same group.

[LisaL]

18. No, it's the same one.

[uncle ray]

20. i remembered her by her alias: Nastya Rybka.

[LisaL]

21. One and the same.

[watoos]

8. The U.S. is the last country that I would ask for asylum.

She should pick another country, since she won't get it here.

[Grins]

15. Right now, Canada, Mexico, the UK, Australia...

What country likes the U.S. anymore?

[Raven123]

12. She must be desperate

Assuming she is truthful, letting that cat out the bag is suicide.

[brooklynite]

17. Okay, let's be honest.....

Thailand has no particular incentive to release Ms. Vashukevich, and Mueller can't go out of his way to get her to talk without being released.

[LisaL]

19. And Trump sure as hell doesn't have any motivation to grant her asylum.