Thailand deports Belarusian ‘sex trainer’ along with seven others
BANGKOK: A Belarusian model who claimed she had evidence of Russian efforts to help US President Donald Trump win office was deported from Thailand yesterday after being convicted of participating in a "sex training course".
Anastasia Vashukevich, known by her pen name Nastya Rybka, was held with several others in a police raid last February in Pattaya in Thailand.
In a case that veered between salacious and bizarre, Vashukevich said she had travelled to Thailand after becoming embroiled in a political scandal with Russian aluminium tycoon Oleg Deripaska - a one-time associate of Mr 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 Mr Trump's presidential election victory.
But the material never surfaced and critics dismissed the claims as a publicity stunt.
In the risque seminar led by Alex Kirillov, a self-styled Russian seduction guru, some participants wore shirts that said "sex animator" - though one person described it as more of a romance and relationship course.
Vashukevich pleaded guilty alongside seven others to multiple charges, including solicitation and illegal assembly at a Pattaya court on Tuesday, which ordered the group be deported.
Kirillov told reporters as they arrived at court on Tuesday that he believed they were set up.
Yesterday, Vashukevich and most of the convicted were put on a flight for Moscow, bringing to an end the Thai side of a baffling case.
Thailand's immigration chief Surachate Hakparn said the last of the group would leave the country this evening.
They are also blacklisted from returning to Thailand.
It was unclear what would happen to them on arrival in Moscow, but the two Belarusians on the afternoon flight - which would include Vashukevich - are expected to not stay overnight and transit to Belarus.
That may be preferable for Vashukevich, who has more than 120,000 followers on Instagram and penned a book about seducing oligarchs, because she also faces legal problems in Russia. - AFP
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