Jailed Instagram model wants to trade secrets for freedom
PATTAYA, Thailand — A Belarusian woman jailed in Thailand for offering sex lessons without a work permit says she has a story to tell involving the Kremlin, Russian billionaires and even the president of the United States.
Anastasia Vashukevich, whose extraordinary claims and racy selfies have propelled her to internet fame in recent weeks, told The Associated Press from a police van Wednesday that she fears for her life, and wants to exchange information on alleged Russian ties to Donald Trump’s campaign for her own personal safety. But she refused for now to offer any such evidence, and it’s not clear if she has any.
Vashukevich’s story offers a glimpse into the shady world of Russian oligarchs. Trump’s onetime campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, also had ties to that world through his consulting work for one of those oligarchs. Manafort has been indicted on money-laundering charges related to his overseas consulting work by special counsel Robert Mueller. But Mueller has offered no evidence that Manafort linked his Russian contacts to Trump’s campaign or helped Russia meddle in the 2016 U.S. election.
That has not stopped Vashukevich from claiming she has such evidence as she faces possible deportation.
Vashukevich shot to fame in early February when Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, one of President Vladimir Putin’s top foes, published an investigation drawing on Vashukevich’s social media posts suggesting corrupt links between billionaire Oleg Deripaska and a top Kremlin official, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko. The report featured video from Deripaska’s yacht in 2016, when Vashukevich claims she was having an affair with him.
Russians have focused on the ties between Deripaska and Prikhodko. But now Vashukevich says — so far without proof — that she can link the Kremlin to Trump and Manafort, who worked for Deripaska a decade before Trump hired him.
Even Navalny told the AP on Wednesday he has “certain doubts” that Vashukevich has any evidence about alleged direct ties between Russia and the Trump campaign.
Walmart sets age of 21 to buy firearms, ammunition
NEW YORK — Walmart announced Wednesday that it will no longer sell firearms and ammunition to people younger than 21 and would also remove items resembling assault-style rifles from its website.
The move comes after Dick’s Sporting Goods announced earlier in the day that it would restrict the sale of firearms to those under 21 years old. It didn’t mention ammunition. Dick’s also said it would immediately stop selling assault-style rifles, and its CEO took on the National Rifle Association by demanding tougher gun laws.
Walmart said its decision came after the company reviewed its firearm sales policy in light of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people. The teenage gunman used an AR-15 rifle. It said it takes “seriously our obligation to be a responsible seller of firearms” and also emphasized its background of serving “serving sportsmen and hunters.”
Several major corporations, including MetLife, Hertz and Delta Air Lines, have cut ties with the NRA since the Florida tragedy, but none were retailers that sold guns. The NRA has pushed back aggressively against calls for raising age limits for guns or restricting the sale of assault-style weapons.
Walmart Inc. stopped selling AR-15 guns and other semi-automatic weapons in 2015. It doesn’t sell bump stocks, the accessory attached to a semi-automatic gun that makes it easier to fire rounds faster. It also doesn’t sell large-capacity magazines. It also says it doesn’t sell handguns, except in Alaska.
Immigration head blames Oakland mayor for 800 missed arrests
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal official said Wednesday that about 800 “criminals” avoided immigration arrests because Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf alerted the public to the surprise operation, an extraordinarily high number of missed targets.
Thomas Homan, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s acting director, told Fox News that the mayor’s warning on Twitter was “beyond the pale” and compared her to a gang lookout who tells people when a police car is arriving. Homan said the Justice Department is looking into whether Schaaf obstructed justice.
The mayor’s unusual public warning last weekend came hours before the agency launched an operation in Northern California that resulted in more than 150 arrests as of Tuesday, according to the agency.
The agency declined to elaborate on the 800 who allegedly got away or answer other questions about the operation that began Sunday. Danielle Bennett, an agency spokeswoman, said more information would be released later in the week.
John Torres, the agency’s director during the end of George W. Bush’s administration and beginning of Barack Obama’s, said agents generally capture about 40 percent of people they target in such sweeps.
Woman accused of poisoning her look-alike with a cheesecake
NEW YORK — A Russian native was charged with poisoning a look-alike with a tranquilizer-laced cheesecake and then stealing her passport, cash and other property after trying to make it look like a suicide attempt, authorities said Wednesday.
“This is a bizarre and twisted crime that could have resulted in the death of a Queens woman, whose only fault was that she shared similar features with the defendant,” said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
The suspect, Viktoria Nasyrova, 42, of Brooklyn, was arraigned Tuesday on attempted murder, burglary, assault and other charges after being arrested March 2017. Her lawyer, Barbara Byrne, declined to comment. In an earlier interview with CBS, Nasyrova denied forcing the woman to eat the cheesecake.
In August 2016, Nasyrova, visited the Forest Hills, Queens, home of the 35-year-old victim bearing a gift of a cheesecake, said Brown. He added that both women have dark hair, the same skin complexion and speak Russian.
“The woman ate the cheesecake, fell ill and laid down,” Brown said. “Before passing out, the woman’s last memory is of seeing the defendant sitting beside her inside her home.”
