Earlier this month, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posted a video investigation that used the Instagram posts of a woman with the handle Nastya Rybka to build a corruption investigation involving one of Russia's wealthiest men and a powerful government official.
Rybka — who is actually a Belarus-born woman named Anastasia Vashukevich — works as an escort, which is how she wound up posting a video of her and others cavorting with Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska. Also seen in the video hanging out on Deripaska's yacht: Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko, which Nalvany said showed the close link between oligarchs and the Russian government.
The video became a whole to-do in Russia, where Deripaska has sued Instagram and YouTube to remove Rybka's posts and Nalvany's investigation.
Rybka apparently took down most of the posts on her own but Instagram — which is owned by Facebook — took down the last two to comply with a Russian court order. (The YouTube videos are still up.) Meanwhile, things get tricky when it comes to Deripaska because he used to employ Paul Manafort, Trump's one-time campaign manager who is under investigation for money laundering. But we'll come back to him.
They are most likely going to make her vanish before she can tell her story.
Her arrest in Thailand coincided with the arrival of an ex FSB director there.
Blown C.I.A. asset?
