The last person Kazakh-Russian model Ruslana Korshunova called before she leaped to her death from her Manhattan apartment wasn’t her family, best friend, or even her boyfriend.
Minutes before her suicide on June 28, 2008, the 20-year-old called her ‘life coach’ who months earlier introduced her to shadowy cult Rose of the World.
Vladimir Vorobeyv, who was 22 at the time, met Korshunova at a party in Moscow in December 2007 and began a three-month romance.
Korshunova was at a crossroads, worn out by her frenetic life as a top model that had her at a shoot one day, and partying with billionaires the next.
One of those rich men was convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who flew her on his ‘Lolita Express’ to his private Caribbean island in June 2006, newly released documents revealed on Thursday.
Ruslana Korshunova is seen in September 2007, modeling for Cynthia Rowe. She jumped to her death on June 28, 2008, months after joining a cult named Rose of the World
Rose of the World is run by flashy Russian millionaire Vladislav Novgorodtsev, who shows off his wealth and exotic holidays online. He and his wife Tatiana pose in a Ferrari in a picture said to be taken in Monaco.
Knowing she was despondent, Vorobeyv introduced her to Rose of the World just weeks after they met, initially signing up for a three-day $900 course.
Rose of the World is run by flashy Russian millionaire Vladislav Novgorodtsev, who shows off his wealth and exotic holidays online.
Korshunova kept going for three months, along with her friend, fellow model Anastasia Drozdova, who also jumped to her death in 2009.
By the end of March she returned to New York in search of new modelling work but was making increasingly concerning posts on a Russian social media site.
The last day of her life began with a 10am walk next door to buy fruit, then she talked to her boyfriend Mark Kaminsky, then 32, about 12pm.
They made plans to got to a friend’s birthday party that night, before logging back in to the social media site at 12.19pm.
Soon after she called Vorobeyv, telling him: ‘I’m going to go out. I have friends coming by’.
‘She said she was feeling unwell, that she did not want to talk to anybody,’ he said.
‘She was not in a right mood. Before this, she often complained about her bad mood.’
Vorobeyv said just two days earlier she told him: ‘Even if I am not here any more, the whole world will talk about me’.
Minutes before she jumped to her death, Korshunova tried calling Vorobeyv a second time, but he was drinking at a bar and told her to call back later.
The Russian model cut through construction mesh and jumped to her death from the building in Manhattan’s financial district in 2008
Korshunova jumped from an office building next to her apartment – pictured above is her covered body in Manhattan’s Financial District
Ruslana Korshunova at Bill Blass’ spring 2008 presentation at the New York Public Library’s Celeste Bartos Forum
The Rose Of The World cult, known as Roza Mira, is an organization based in Moscow that grew out of the works of Russian mystic Daniil Andreev.
The mystical writer aimed to unify concepts of the world’s major religions but also believed in reincarnation and karma.
The cult grew out of a group known as Lifespring in the US in the 1980s. The organization went bankrupt after former members sued for mental health damage.
‘Our seminars will teach you how to realize your goals and achieve material wealth,’ its website stated at the time of Korshunova’s death.
Author Peter Pomerantsev, who studied the cult, told the Daily News that the group aims to humiliate members, blaming them for their problems. One rape victim was told it was her fault.
Pomerantsev described in a piece for Newsweek how he infiltrated the cult and observed its operations after Korshunova’s death.
‘When you enter the Rose, there is darkness and shouting, everything is designed to stun the conscious mind, suspend critical thought,’ he wrote.
‘Then the ‘life trainer’ emerges. He talks so fast you can’t help but be confused, the microphone set at a level your head starts hurting.
‘In the coming days you will experience discomfort. Fear. But this is good. This is the inner barrier you have to break through.
Korshunova is seen on the catwalk in September 2005 during New York Fashion Week, walking for fashion label Naum
Korshunova as a child behind the wheel of her family’s car in Kazakhstan
Korshunova as a toddler in the late 1980s with her doll at home in Kazakhstan
‘There are 40 people in the hall, who are asked to confess their worst experiences. Tales of rape, abusive parents.’
Pomerantsev learned Korshunova was the most enthusiastic speaker, opening up about her father’s death and her failed romances – she ‘cried publicly, laughed violently’.
‘Three days of shouting, recalling repressed memories, meditation followed by dancing, tears followed by ecstasy. Every intense emotion you’ve ever had, stuffed into three life-changing days,’ he wrote.
‘The models signed up for more training, each one a little more expensive than the last, each one a little more intense.’
Another cult devotee who knew Korshunova said the model told them ‘she tried suicide five times in different ways’.
‘She’s tried it since she was 15, 16 years old. It was a loneliness that no one understood,’ they said.
Friends also noticed changes about her behavior and that of Drozdova in the months they were part of Rose of the World, and noted they both lost weight.
‘Ruslana became aggressive, for the first time ever swore and cursed,’ Pomerantsev wrote.
‘Anastasia would start rows, then burst into tears. She missed castings, became reclusive.’
Candid photo of Korshunova with friends as she rose to stardom as a model in the West
Korshunova poses with a friend in a photo from the last years of her life
Korshunova’s parents pictured together in the middle of this photo. Her father died when she was young and her mother Valentina Kutenkov never believed she killed herself
Pomerantsev wrote that he was in the room when a ‘life coach’ talked about Korshunova’s death.
‘Ruslana was (a) typical victim,’ he said.
When a student asked him if he didn’t feel bad that a student of his had died, he callously responded: ‘Sometimes it’s better to commit suicide than not to change.’
Anna Barsukova, 20, a model who was friends with Korshunova for three years, said cult-like ‘self-help’ groups were popular among young models.
‘One of my friends went there too, but responded with concern. They do training about developing your personality,’ she said.
Korshunova’s seduction to the cult began after a series of failed relationships with wealthy men whom she thought loved her, but quickly discarded her.
Heartbreak caused weight loss and unpredictable behavior that affected her work, and jobs began to dry up.
Meeting Vorobeyv in Moscow was a welcome break, their first date ending with them running around kissing in the pouring rain.
‘Maybe she felt something towards me, we saw a lot of each other. I supported her, her life was not smooth,’ he said.
But as with many of Korshunova’s relationships, there was a catch – Vorobeyv had a pregnant girlfriend, whom he married between the model leaving and her death.
‘She knew that I was married and that my wife was pregnant then. I told Ruslana that I would never leave my wife and that she could expect only support from me,’ he said.
Vladislav Novgorodtsev in a shop in Geneva. He posted ‘I like this brand.’ Prices start around $12,000 and go up to above $100,000 for jewel-encrusted watches
Cult leader Vladislav Novgorodtseva in Venice to celebrate her birthday
Korshunova paid thousands of dollars to attend Rose of the World courses at the Roza Mira Training Centre in Moscow, along with her lover and Drozdova.
Whatever ‘self help’ it gave her didn’t translate to her writing online, that were bleak and full of heartache.
‘It hurts if someone took a part of me, mercilessly tore it out, stomped all over it…threw it out,’ she wrote on January 1, 2008.
Another soon after joining the cult read: ‘If I am for others, then who is for me? And if I am for myself, then what am I for?’
On February 18, the cult seemed to be worming its way into her mind: ‘there’s disorder! I don’t have a home. I need an boss for there to be order’.
Perhaps the clearest sign of the effect the cult was having on her was during a flurry of posts on March 18 and 19.
‘My own fault … that I allowed in… my own fault… that i fell in love … my own fault that i didn’t allow to spoil me … my own fault … that i allowed my heart to be broken …my own fault,’ she wrote.
Another read: i’m so lost.. will i ever find myself?..
Then on April 6: ‘I don’t know now if it was real love.. but I know for sure..it exists somewhere.. maybe nearby.. or maybe.’
People close to Korshunova can’t seem to agree on how well her career faired when she returned to New York.
Korshunova (second from right) with a previous boyfriend, Artem Perchenok. They had split before her death.
Artem Perchenok, who was 24 when she died, dated Korshunova the year before her death until they broke up in autumn 2007
Some said she was constantly busy, but others described her as being broke and desperately wanting out of the modelling business.
‘I guess, suddenly, she was no longer a new girl. She was depressed about that. She’d made her money and she wanted to get out of the modeling business badly,’ one friend told the NYDN.
Korshunova had recently returned from Paris and was scheduled to be in Texas the day after her death, then celebrate her 21st birthday with her boyfriend and pals three days after that.
She had a photoshoot on a roof in Midtown Manhattan the day before death.
Artem Perchenok, who was 24 when she died, dated Korshunova the year before her death until they broke up in autumn 2007.
They stayed close friends and saw each other the day before she jumped to her death, hanging out and watching Ghost at his parents’ home in Queens.
He dropped her home at 4am and little over 10 hours later she was dead. ‘I feel that she came to say goodbye,’ he said.
Perchenok recalled that she told him that she told her manager she didn’t know what to do with her life, and whenever a job went badly she would ‘take it out on herself’.
But he said she was excited about her new boyfriend, luxury car dealer Kaminsky, confiding: ‘This person understands me.’
The couple in Monaco at time of the Grand Prix
Cult leader’s wife Tatiana poses in front of a Bugatti car in Monte Carlo
Rose of the World’s leader, Novgorodtsev, also claimed to know Korshunova well.
‘I saw her and heard her stories, stories that no one else has heard,’ he told the Daily News.
‘The most important thing about her and her internal world was that she was lonely. There was no one who was really dear to her, except for her mother.’
Novgorodtsev blamed her unhappiness not on his organization, but on her work beginning to dry up, and her failed romance with Vorobeyv.
‘She had a romance in Moscow, but nothing could happen because the young man was married,’ he said of Vorobeyv.
‘She was asking for money. Ten-thousand rubles (about $400) would save her. That was 10 days before she committed suicide.’
Novgorodtsev later claimed, in 2011 that the deaths of Korshunova and Drozdova forced him to shut down Rose of the World.
‘I had to shut down my business because all the clients abandoned me,’ he told Russian newspaper Izvestia.
‘And why did it happen? We were doing good things and some supermodels committed suicide because of their troubled way of life.’
Korshunova’s tragic posts
January 1, 2008: It hurts if someone took a part of me, mercilessly tore it out, stomped all over it…threw it out.
January 30: If I am for others, then who is for me? And if I am for myself, then what am I for?
February 18: there’s disorder! i don’t have a home. I need an boss for there to be order
March 6: A girl once asked a guy, does he think she is cute. He said no. She asked, would he want to be with her forever, and he said no. Then she asked him, if i left, would you cry and his answer was no. She heard enough. She turned around, to leave, tears running down her face. The guy took her hand and said, “You are not cute, you are beautiful. I don’t want to be with you forever, I HAVE to. And I would not cry, if you left, I would die.
March 6: Why trample on my love
March 7: people stop fighting..angels are crying…we can be better!..love is the answer!!
March 7: my dream is to fly..oh my rainbaw is too high..
March 11: I know what is it..I know why my other relationship didn’t work out..cos i’m unpredictable…why r u afraid of it..?
March 11: don’t hate me, I’m asking you, I feel it with all my heart, that we are close to each other like no one else on this earth..don’t be silent, i’m asking you..don’t be silent..My soul is missing you … return, turn around, smile…my dear, bright, little sun..i can’t breath without you, I think about you every minute..
March 11: i wonna be with u!only u!i wonna share my life my bed with u!only u!i wonna love u!only u!!!
March 18: My own fault … that I allowed in… my own fault… that i fell in love … my own fault that i didn’t allow to spoil me … my own fault … that i allowed my heart to be broken …my own fault..
March 18: What’s more important, to love or be loved? I can’t seem to decide this question for myself. Overall, requited, real love is a big rarity.
If you build you relations only on that real requited love, you can sit through life in loneliness. Even the strongest love can disappear without a trace after a year, and then what? Reason says that it is better to be loved, but in life, we love more often than we are loved. To love, especially without return, is very hard, painful and takes away from the soul’s strength.
March 18: Why, sooner or later, love will die. What is even worst is if it will end earlier for my partner than for me. It really hurts when someone stops loving you but you continue to love.
March 18: life is very fragile, and its flow can easily be ruined.
March 18: if you don’t get lost, there is a chance you may never be found..
March 19: boys.. why are you so silly?
March 19: i’m so lost. .will i ever find myself?..
March 31: I think that women can constantly can love men, when they are real. When you say give me and receive. After that, you give in yourself.
P.S. Give in meaning your soul. Because he is so strong, he can do everything.
April 6: I don’t know now if it was real love..but I know for sure..it exists somewhere..maybe nearby..or maybe..
Another high-ranking cult member brushed off responsibility in similarly callous fashion, and insisted Korshunova coulon’t have killed herself.
“Ruslana had what we call a ‘rollback.’ She felt a little strange. You’d find her wandering round town, unsure what she was doing there,’ they said.
‘Maybe she’d cry at night. But she couldn’t have killed herself. We cured her of any problems she might have.
‘And Anastasia? She was messed up already. We tried to help her, we really tried. But she refused transformation. Blame modeling, maybe drugs, not us.’
Despite claiming the cult was over, Novgorodtsev appeared to be running a similar organization as soon as 2014.
In the prestigious Courchevel resort in the French Alps
A investigation in Russia found the wealthy Siberian-born Novgorodtsev, 44, still heads an organisation apparently run on the same lines as Rose of the World, though it does not now use this name, and that he enjoys a luxury lifestyle.
It is called Novgorodtsev Education, a company which was also the front for Rose of the World.
Novgorodtsev’s training company offers courses for stressed-out Russians, for around $700 for a three day session.
Novgorodtsev describes himself as ‘a master in understand the motives of human behaviour’.
‘Thousands of people became our clients – there are famous bankers among them, owners of publishing houses, showmen,’ he boasted.
With branches in Moscow, St Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, he claimed: ‘I was searching for the secrets of famous people.’
His aim is to show people ‘a different way of thinking’.
Married with two children, he claims to have lived previously in the US, and pictures show him globetrotting on five-star vacations.
His social media showed him in Monaco and the Maldives, taking snow breaks in Courchevel and Switzerland, as well as time off in Ibiza and Venice.
A Formula One fan, he and his wife Tatiana are shown on his social media sites posing beside a yacht in St Tropez and driving a rented Ferrari around France.
Novgorodtsev on the Novgorodtsev Education company website. The name was previously used as a cover for the cult, which he claimed had been closed
Virginia Roberts-Giuffre was asked by her lawyer whether she knew Korshuova by Brad Edwards, a Florida-based attorney, to Roberts-Giuffre in a May 2011 email unsealed on Thursday night.
Roberts-Giuffre was asked by Edwards, who served as her PR, about the model, who he said had enjoyed a trip to a private island with a wealthy male admirer.
In June 2006, aged 18, she had flown from New York with Epstein and other friends on his Boeing 727, dubbed ‘Lolita Express’, to his private island in the US Virgin Islands, Little St James.
It is unclear what happened to her once she was there, but Epstein was known to fly girls and young women to his compound, where they’d be sexually exploited by himself and other men.
‘I think it’s a long shot you would recognize her, but read the article I attached and then look at the pictures and see if you recognize her,’ Edwards wrote. ‘I will call you tomorrow.’
Edwards enclosed a link to a Newsweek report on the model’s death.
Epstein is pictured on the jet getting a foot massage from Ghislaine Maxwell with French modeling scout Jean-Luc Brunel on the ‘Lolita Express’
Korshunova’s name is circled on the manifest. She was on board with JE (Epstein); IZ (his bodyguard Igor Zinoviev, a former UFC fighter); LC (Lance Calloway, who worked as Epstein’s chef on the island); SK (Epstein’s long-time assistant Sarah Kellen) and Stephanie Tidwell
Roberts-Giuffre replied: ‘I am so sorry to hear the news of Ruslana, and my condolences are with her family and friends.
‘I can say that I have never had any meetings with her, sorry not to be of any help there.’
The exchange was revealed on Thursday, with the unsealing of a trove of documents from Roberts-Giuffre’s 2015 defamation case against Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s right-hand woman.
The documents were unsealed this week after the Manhattan judge ruled there was no longer any justification for keeping the files secret.
Epstein died in August 2019 in jail awaiting trial, and Maxwell is now in prison, serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking.