The escort, Anastasia Vashukevich, was deported from Thailand on Thursday after she and seven other defendants β five Russians and two Belarusians β pleaded guilty to charges of solicitation and conspiracy.
Russian news services said that she had been detained when she arrived at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow. Vashukevich, who also goes by the name Nastya Rybka, was detained in Moscow with her associate Alexander Kirillov, who had helped her conduct a sex-training seminar in the Thai city of Pattaya. Vashukevich was supposed to have flown on to Minsk, Belarus, Interfax reported. The pair were arrested by the Thai authorities last February after coming under suspicion of working without a permit or visa, and before long Ms.
Vashukevich asked for asylum in the United States. She said she could provide more than 16 hours of audio recordings that could shed light on Russian interference in the American presidential election. By this point, Ms. Vashukevich had already gained a degree of online fame. Her Instagram videos of Sergei E. Prikhodko, then a deputy prime minister, and Oleg Deripaska, a billionaire with ties to the Kremlin, were featured prominently in a minute video published by Aleksei A.
Navalny, the Russian opposition leader and anticorruption campaigner. Vashukevich said she took the photos and audio during a brief affair with Mr. The video released by Mr. Navalny included a recording of Mr. Deripaska and Mr. Prikhodko talking about relations between the United States and Russia. After her arrest, Ms.
Vashukevich expressed fear that the Thai authorities would deport her to Russia, where she had lived before moving to Thailand. But a few months after she tried to bargain for freedom with the United States, Ms.
