Escort girl unwittingly helped prove Russian meddling in US elections
One of the high-ranking Russian officials – vice premier Sergey Prikhodko – spent several days in the company of Oleg Deripaska, the Russian oligarch, and several prostitutes. The story was told by Aleksey Navalny, one of the Russian opposition leaders, in his new video “Yachts, oligarchs, girls; sex-hunter against corruption”
The 20 minutes long video (above) is not about the fun that took place aboard the yacht. It is a new investigation by Navalny`s Foundation Against Corruption.
Sergey Prikhodko is called “one of the most influential foreign policy advisors” and accused of taking bribes from oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who some time ago was №1 on the Russian Forbes list and №9 in the world. He bribed the official for lobbying his interests in the Kremlin, the authors of the video claim. And this is not all. The story is connected to Russian meddling in the US elections.
Paul Manafort, Trump`s campaign manager, has been lobbying Deripaska`s interests since 2005, the two also have common business interests, American media claim.
Manafort is under investigation now and will go to court in spring. He is charged with conspiracy against the US, illegal dealings with former Ukrainian President Yanukovich and money laundering. Manafort has not been charged with corroboration with the Kremlin, but was questioned on the issue, his house searched. The interest may be reignited by the escort girl`s story.
Previous Foundation Against Corruption investigations targeted Prime Minister Medvedev and Prosecutor General Chaika, accusing them of massive corruption.
The videos have been viewed over 40 million times but ignored by the Russian authorities.
The new video is largely based on photos taken from the Instagram of one of the girls aboard the yacht and her book “Seducing a billionaire”. The author calling herself Nastya Rybka provides details of entertaining an oligarch and an official having business talks aboard the yacht. The men on the photos are Deripaska and Prikhodko.
Two apartments in Moscow and a summer house worth USD 5 million owned by Prikhodko are also mentioned in the video.