Sasha Grey: Not Dead, No Matter What The Russians Say

LOS ANGELES—Donald Trump may or may not have hired a pair of hookers to pee on the bed where President and Michelle Obama spent the night, or he hired prostitutes and attended "sex parties" during his exploration of real estate opportunities in St. Petersburg and Moscow, as recently charged in a document obtained by Buzzfeed, but Russians in general are not strangers to "disinformation" aka "fake news"—so much so that they've given the practice its own word, "kompromat." And while it may not be as earth-shaking as claims about Trump's sexual proclivities, even porn is not beyond the reach of the Russian hoaxers. The news has just come out, thanks to her interview with The Daily Beast's Marlow Stern, that former adult star Sasha Grey was one of its victims just three years ago. "What apparently happened was users of the image board 2ch.hk—an offshoot of 2ch.ru, or Russia’s version of 4chan—launched a gullibility campaign to test whether or not Russians would fall for bogus stories of pro-Russian 'fallen heroes' of the War in Donbas," Stern recounted. "In addition to Grey, who was given the name Sasha Serova (which roughly translates to 'grey' in Russian), the online trolls also floated a picture of Josef Mengele, the sadistic Auschwitz concentration camp physician, granting him the identity of 'Yegor Mangelov,' a field surgeon killed by Ukranian troops. "Grey unleashed the following [Twitter] response: 'I [heart] my Russian fans, but this propaganda takes it too far. News that I was a NURSE killed in the Russian/Ukraine conflict. #fuckpropaganda." Contacted today, Grey said she had no further comment on the story, since the incident happened three years ago, but at that time, according to Stern, she stated, It’s strange! It’s really strange. But it’s not something you can control." The obituary, reproduced above, reads in part, "This seemingly fragile, yet strong young woman, has saved wounded fighters at the front. She was said to have nursed even the most hopeless cases back to health. But she herself did not return from the front." It goes on to claim that while helping the wounded, she was kidnapped by Ukrainians and "beaten, raped, and decapitated with an ax." Grey, head still intact, denies the claims.