Russian media is reporting that the Belarusian ‘sex-trainer’, Nasty Rybka, who was jailed in Thailand for nine months, was working for the Russian security service, or the FSB. The goal of the operation was to snag information and kompromat on Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, along with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Prikhodlko, who the woman filmed on Deripaska’s yacht off the Norwegian coast. She also declared she had information linking the Trump campaign with Russian officials during the 2016 election although this was never confirmed or released.
In an op-ed for Republic, columnist Oleg Kashin argues that “sex trainer” Anastasia Vashukevich (“Nastya Rybka”) should be considered a political prisoner, not a tabloid sideshow. Kashin says Vashukevich’s “strange,” reckless behavior before and after Navalny’s exposé indicates that she believed she was safe from reprisals by someone as rich and powerful as Oleg Deripaska. According to journalist Sergey Kanev’s source in Russia’s prostitution world, Vashukevich apparently worked with the Federal Security Service. Kashin says this means the FSB likely used her to attack Deripaska and Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Prikhodko. When the agency got what it wanted from these individuals, the FSB did what it does with any expendable resource and cut Vashukevich loose.
The prostitution case against Vashukevich in Moscow suggests that Russia’s authorities have actively turned on their former call girl, Kashin argues. Whether the motivation is “corruption” or staging a cautionary tale for potentially loose-lipped sex workers, the state is now persecuting Vashukevich, Kashin says, which makes her a political prisoner. (A day after Kashin’s article was published, Vashukevich and Alexander Kirillov were released on their own recognizance from pretrial detention in Moscow.), writes Russian news outlet Meduza, based in Latvia.
In the video below, Rybka thanks Belarusian president Lukashenko for helping her get released from detention in Moscow after her deportation from Thailand last week.
What is for assured is that more information will for sure come out on this strange story as time goes on. This is better than any Bond movie could dream up!
