A Belarusian model who claims to have information tying Russia to Donald Trump's election campaign says she has since turned that material over to Russian billionaire businessman Oleg Deripaska.

Anastasia Vashukevich fueled speculation around possible ties between Mr Trump and the Kremlin last year when she posted a video from a police van, saying she had 16 hours of audio and video proving ties between Russian officials and the Trump campaign that influenced the 2016 US elections.

Deripaska denied the allegations and even went to court to seek to remove the video Vashukevich posted in which he discusses US-Russia ties with a senior Russian government official.

Vashukevich, who is also known as Nastya Rybka, returned to Russia last month almost a year after she was detained in Thailand on charges of soliciting sex, in what some believe was an attempt to silence her.

Vashukevich, 28, told the AP in an interview today that, contrary to earlier reports that she had destroyed the recordings, she had given them to Deripaska because it "relates to him" and that she "did not want any more trouble".

Vashukevich rose to prominence in February last year when Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny published an investigation detailing dealings between Deripaska and Sergei Prikhodko, then-Russian deputy prime minister who played a prominent role in shaping Russia's foreign policy.

Mr Navalny drew on Vashukevich's video from summer 2016 when Deripaska was hosting Mr Prikhodko on his yacht and was caught on tape saying that relations between Russia and the US were bad because of then-Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland.

Deripaska is close to Putin and also had a working relationship with Paul Manafort, Mr Trump's former campaign manager.

Claims made to 'save my life'

She told CNN from a Thai detention center last year that she witnessed meetings between Deripaska and at least three unnamed Americans. Now back in Moscow, she says the claims she made to the media were an attempt to get media attention to save her life.

Asked if she regretted making those claims about the evidence she had, Vashukevich said, "I think it saved my life, how can I regret it? If journalists had not come at that time and that story had not come to the newspapers, maybe I would die [be dead by] now."

Deripaska denies any affair with Vashukevich, but he remains a subject of major political interest in US political circles. Trump has denied claims that his campaign colluded with Russians.

Vashukevich apologized to Deripaska for hurting his reputation during a court appearance in Moscow prior to her release.

Deripaska was back in the spotlight this weekend, after the Trump administration's Treasury Department formally lifted sanctions on three Russian firms with links to the billionaire, including Rusal, the world's second-largest aluminum producer.

In her interview with CNN, Vashukevich described her year in a Thai prison as "hell," and said she had contemplated suicide if she was handed a lengthy sentence.

"It's like a blockbuster and I'm inside," she said. "But it's not a movie, it's my life."