The front page of the Daily News is worth the price of glancing at as you walk out of the deli with your lunch: It features the scantily-clad Russian immigrant Ruzilya Khusnutdinova, seen above, who is satisfying New Yorkers' unquenchable lust for bizarre lawsuits today. Khusnutdinova is suing her dentist ex-boyfriend for a whopping $16 million because he allegedly took private photos taken before they broke up and gave them to an escort service website in an attempt to get her deported.
To be sure, every weird lawsuit has two weird sides. Khusnutdinova, 24, says that the dentist, Vladimir Dranovsky, took the photos with her consent when the two were on a romantic trip to Lake George together. According to the lawsuit, he later used them to create a fake profile for her on the [NSFW, obvs] escort service website escortsexguide.com. Khusnutdinova says the first time she heard her photos were on the site was when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers visited her in Brooklyn to determine if she was a prostitute, which could cost her her visa.
Khusnutdinova, who studied biochemistry in Russia, emigrated to the U.S. in 2009. Through a Russian dating site she met Dranovsky, who helped her obtain a visa and get settled. "I think he was taking advantage of someone who had nobody here," her lawyer tells the News. Khusnutdinova's profile was still up as of last night, despite her repeated requests for the website to remove them. According to the website, she charges between $200-$600 an hour, "depending on the fantasy."
Dranovsky, the dentist, says this is all kakashka. “She told me she was working for an escort service,” he told the News last night. “Maybe she’s blaming me just to get out of it. She’s just probably making it up because she wants to get some money." He also has no recollection of taking the photos. However, his record is not unblemished: He was charged with grand larceny last year after Khusnutdinova accused him of holding onto her passport after they broke up and demanding $4,000 to get it back. He ultimately pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.
So, in summation, Khusnutdinova is not a prostitute and her ex-boyfriend is a scoundrel, unless she's actually a prostitute with a heart of gold-digger and her ex-boyfriend is an innocent dentist who got involved with the wrong immigrant. Or maybe they're both crazy? This story has more twists than a Russian ballerina binging on a bag of Rold Gold, and we're going to be following it with great interest.
