Kremlin-connected Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska has won a million-ruble moral-damage claim against a Belarusian escort and model known as Nastya Rybka and her partner, self-styled "sex guru" Aleksandr Kirillov.
In a July 9 ruling, the Ust-Labinsk district court in the Krasnodar Krai ordered Kirillov and Anastasia Vashukevich, who calls herself Nastya Rybka, to pay Deripaska 500,000 rubles ($8,000) each.
The court said that Vashukevich and Kirillov, who also uses the pseudonym Alex Lesley, had posted material related to Deripaska's private life on the Internet without his consent.
The ruling was the latest twist in a saga that started in February, when Kremlin foe Aleksei Navalny published an expose appearing to show a then-deputy prime minister on Deripaska's yacht off the coast of Norway.
Navalny's report drew on photographs and video that Vashukevich, who was pictured on the yacht and says she had an affair with Deripaska, published on Instagram in 2016.
A lawyer for Deripaska, Aleksei Melnikov, said he was satisfied with the court decision.
Vashukevich and Kirillov are being held in Thailand, where they were charged with soliciting to provide sexual services and conspiracy to solicit after they were detained in the beach resort of Pattaya in February.
Deripaska sued them on February 28, days after Navalnty's report and the video footage appearing to show Kremlin insider Sergei Prikhodko being offered lavish treatment on Deripaska's yacht went viral on the Internet.
Vashukevich and Kirillov made international headlines again after they asked for U.S. asylum and offered to reveal secrets to journalists shortly after their arrest in Pattaya.
In a video posted on Instagram on February 27, which appears to have been filmed in a Thai police car, Vashukevich claimed that she could reveal details about Russia's alleged meddling in the U.S. election.
In a letter sent to the U.S. Embassy around the same time, Vashukevich and Kirillov asked for U.S. political asylum and protection, saying they had "very important information for USA" and that their lives were in danger.
Aluminum tycoon Deripaska, who is one of several Russian tycoons hit by U.S. sanctions, was once an associate of U.S. President Donald Trump's ex-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.
Manafort has been indicted on money-laundering and tax-related charges as part of the special counsel's investigation into Russian interference in the election.
