Russian prostitution ring busted in Trump Tower
Last week we learned of the arrest of Russian political operative Maria Butina. Shortly after we learned that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was subpoenaing Kristin Davis, known as the “Manhattan Madam,” who once was convicted of running a prostitution ring and had a connection to Roger Stone. With all of this being covered on all media networks, very little was mentioned about another arrest involving prostitution, Russians, and a building owned by Donald Trump.
As prostitution rings are busted all the time, perhaps this was not initially considered out of the ordinary. However, when more details came out, it certainly deserved further scrutiny. Living in Trump Tower III in Miami, married couple Yevgen Rizanov and Ksenia Khodukia were repeatedly flying Russian women to New York for use in a “sophisticated long-term operation promoting prostitution,” according to New York Assistant District Attorney James Lynch.
According to Lynch, “The defendants split the money with the women but dictated the percentage they could keep.” A third defendant, Arkadiy Bashkatov, was arrested for housing the Russian prostitutes in a building in Brooklyn. It believed that he would set up “dates” for the women throughout New York. Based on an internet search, it appears that Bashkatov is fifty years old and is registered on multiple American and Russian social media sites.
In July 2015, it was reported by Reuters that Trump Model Management and Trump Management Group combined to request almost 250 U.S. visas for foreign fashion models, many coming from Russia and Eastern Europe. With the multiple allegations over the years of Trump attending parties with underage models, possibly including human trafficking, as well as the use of his modeling companies to recruit young models, this is certainly quite the coincidence.
I’m a ceramic engineer living in Central New York, avid sports fan but find myself more interested in politics lately.