MOSCOW: A Belarusian model who claimed she had proof of Russian collusion with the Trump election campaign, had her detention in Moscow extended by three days by a Russian court on Saturday.
Anastasia Vashukevich, also known as Nastya Rybka, has been held for questioning since Thursday after she was deported from Thailand as part of a group convicted of participating in a “sex training course.”
“The court has decided to extend her detention by 72 hours,” judge Natalya Borissenkova was cited as stating by the Ria Novosti news agency.
She denied the accusation of prostitution, telling the court that “I am not guilty of what I am accused,” Interfax reported.
In a case that veered between salacious and bizarre, Vashukevich has said she had traveled to Thailand after becoming embroiled in a political scandal with Russian aluminum tycoon Oleg Deripaska — a one-time associate of US President Trump’s disgraced former campaign director Paul Manafort.
She then set tongues wagging by promising to reveal “missing puzzle pieces” regarding claims the Kremlin aided Trump’s 2016 presidential election victory.
But the material never surfaced and critics dismissed the claims as a publicity stunt.
Both Washington and Moscow publicly shrugged off Vashukevich’s story, which the US State Department described as “bizarre.”
She had been in custody in Thailand since a police raid in the sleazy seaside resort of Pattaya early last year.
She was arrested at Moscow airport on Thursday after being deported from Thailand where she had spent a year in prison for participating in a “sex training course.”
During the hearing in Moscow, she said she did not want to “in any way compromise Oleg Deripaska.”
“I have had enough,” she added, according to Interfax.
Her lawyer Dmitry Zatsarinsky, told reporters that his young client “has committed no crime” and had “nothing to do with” Deripaska and “still less with Donald Trump.”
On Friday he denounced her arrest, which happened while she was in transit from Thailand on her way to Belarus.
Russian court extends detention of Belarussian model
Russian court extends detention of Belarussian model
- Both Washington and Moscow publicly shrugged off Vashukevich’s story, which the US State Department described as “bizarre”
Pope Leo XIV calls for global truce on Christmas Day
- Pope Leo expressed “great sadness” that “apparently Russia rejected a request” for truce
CASTEL GANDOLFO: Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday called for a global truce on Christmas Day, expressing “great sadness” that “apparently Russia rejected a request” for one.
“I am renewing my request to all people of good will to respect a day of peace — at least on the feast of the birth of our Savior,” Leo told reporters at his residence in Castel Gandolfo near Rome.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and has repeatedly rejected calls for a ceasefire saying it would only give a military advantage to Ukraine.
“Among the things that cause me great sadness is the fact that Russia has apparently rejected a request for a truce,” the pope said.
Referring to conflicts in general, Leo said: “I hope they will listen and there will be 24 hours of peace in the whole world,” he added.
Ukraine on Tuesday pulled out troops from a town in the east of the country after fierce battles with Russian forces as relentless strikes by Moscow killed three civilians and cut power to thousands in freezing winter temperatures.
There was no sign of an imminent breakthrough after top negotiators from both Russia and Ukraine were in Miami last weekend for separate meetings with US officials seeking a deal to end almost four years of fighting.
Pope Leo met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this month.
Asked if he would accept Zelensky’s invitation to visit Ukraine, Leo later said “I hope so,” but cautioned it was not possible to say when such a trip would be possible.
He also said that seeking peace in Ukraine without European diplomatic involvement was “unrealistic” and warned US President Donald Trump’s proposed peace plan risked a “huge change” in the transatlantic alliance.
