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Sunday, January 20, 2019, 18:50
Model in Russian court apologizes for US election claim
By Associated Press
Sunday, January 20, 2019, 18:50 By Associated Press

Belarusian model Anastasia Vashukevich center, is escorted in the court room in Moscow, Russia, Jan 19, 2019. (ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO / AP)

MOSCOW — A Belarusian model and self-styled sex instructor who last year claimed to have evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election said Saturday that she apologizes to a Russian tycoon for the claim and won't say more about the matter.

Anastasia Vashukevich made the statement in a Moscow court that was considering whether to keep her in jail as she faces charges of inducement to prostitution. The court extended her detention for three more days.

Anastasia Vashukevich was arrested in Thailand last February on prostitution charges and was deported from the country along with seven others Thursday

Vashukevich's statement appears to head off any chance of her speaking to US investigators looking into possible collusion between Russia and President Donald Trump's campaign.

Vashukevich, who goes by the name Nastya Rybka on social media, was arrested in Thailand last February on prostitution charges. She and several others were arrested in connection with a sex training seminar they were holding in Thailand.

READ MORE: Thailand deports sex seminar model who claimed Trump secrets

After her arrest she claimed she had audio tapes of Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska, who is close to President Vladimir Putin, talking about interference in the US election.

She had shot to world attention a few weeks earlier when a Russian opposition leader published an investigation based on her social media posts that suggested corrupt links between Deripaska and Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko. The report featured video from Deripaska's yacht in 2016, when Vashukevich says she was having an affair with him.

She was deported from Thailand on Thursday after pleading guilty and was detained when her flight arrived in Moscow, along with three other deportees including mentor Alexander Kirillov.

Anastasia Vashukevich sits in a cage in the court room in Moscow, Russia, Jan 19, 2019. (ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO / AP)

She told journalists in the Moscow court that she has apologized to Deripaska and says "I will no longer compromise him."

Deripaska is among the Russian tycoons and officials who have been sanctioned in recent years by the United States in connection with Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea. His business empire includes aluminum, energy and construction assets.

He also once was a client of Paul Manafort, the former campaign manager for Trump. Manafort was convicted last year in the United States of tax and bank fraud.

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