A model from Belarus who claimed to have evidence of Russian interference in U.S. President Donald Trump’s election was freed from Russian police custody on Tuesday, but remains a suspect in an unrelated criminal case, the TASS news agency reported.
Anastasia Vashukevich and three others were detained upon arrival at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on Thursday after being deported from Thailand.
Russian authorities have said they suspect her of forcing women into prostitution, a charge that carries a jail sentence of up to three years.
Vashukevich, who is also known as Nastya Rybka, has previously said she was in possession of recordings of conversations on interference in the U.S. election through an association with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Deripaska’s representatives have accused her of fabrication and said she was never his mistress.
A Belarusian escort who claimed she had proof of Russian collusion with Donald Trump’s election campaign was freed from a Russian jail on Tuesday following her arrest last week, lawyers said.
Anastasia Vashukevich, also known as Nastya Rybka, was arrested alongside Alexander Kirillov, a self-styled sex guru, when the two arrived at Moscow’s main airport following their deportation from Thailand last Thursday.
Vashukevich had been waiting to travel on to the Belarusian capital Minsk.
“The investigation made a decision to free them from jail with the obligation to appear” for further proceedings, Kirillov’s lawyer Svetlana Sidorkina told AFP.
Vashukevich was deported from Thailand after pleading guilty to participating in a “sex training course”.
She became famous after posting videos allegedly showing tycoon Oleg Deripaska and an influential Russian deputy prime minister on a yacht.
While in Thai prison, she said she had information about Russian meddling in the 2016 US elections.
Her lawyer Dmitry Zatsarinsky posted a video on Instagram Tuesday showing him and Vashukevich apparently in a car following her release.
“Nastya Rybka is free. We’re going home,” he says, as Vashukevich flashes a peace sign and laughs.
The decision was unexpected following a court ruling on Saturday to extend her detention.
Sitting in a glass cage during that hearing, Vashukevich told journalists she wanted to apologise to Deripaska and no longer wants to “compromise him” or publish a book on seducing oligarchs.
“I’ve had enough,” she said.
