Spy my ass. You believe that story, you believe that Daniel Craig will be around to do another James Bond movie for MGM.
from www.dailymail.co.uk – In her former life as a spy, delicate negotiations were a daily part of life.
But now she is out of the espionage game Anna Chapman is said to have bungled a far simpler deal, this time with a Russian men’s magazine.
The femme fatale took part in a raunchy photo shoot then posted some of the pictures on her Facebook page.
They were picked up by other websites and are now widely available on the Internet a week before they were supposed to be published.
The magazine claims she has breached copyright and is now taking her to court in Moscow.
On the website for the magazine, called Zhara, which is Russian for Heat, it describes her as ‘the girl about whom thousands of men dream’ and described the photo session as ‘sensational’.
In one picture the 28-year-old wears a low-cut white dress and blue heels and in another a sequined turquoise mini-dress showing off her enviably body. Other photos show her posing with a pair of suitably spy-like dark glasses.
In a nod to her former life as a ‘deep cover’ agent in the United States, the shoot with took place in a five-star hotel in Moscow – overlooking the Kremlin.
Chapman was among the 10 Russian spies deported from the U.S. last month in the largest spy swap since the Cold War.
They had been sent by the Kremlin on missions lasting decades to embed themselves into American society with the aim of obtaining state secrets.
The daughter of a career spy, she spent five years in Britain and married former public schoolboy Alex Chapman before moving to New York where she started up an international estate agent called Property Finder. Her employment in the UK included as a secretary for an aviation company and working in the small business banking division of Barclays in London for six months in 2004 and 2005.
Her marriage faltered in 2005 with Mr Chapman saying she started to become ‘very secretive, going for meetings on her own with “Russian friends”.’
Since she has returned home, Chapman has kept out of sight until now and through her representatives has made it clear she is willing to sell her story for the right price, even though her plea bargain forbids her from profiting from her espionage.
The editor-in-chief for Heat said it has filed a legal complaint against Chapman in a Russian court and was proceeding because the pictures she posted on her Facebook page had gone ‘viral’ over the Internet.
Maxim Korshunov said Chapman was not paid for the pictures that were taken in mid-July.
‘There were no financial obligations to her,’ he said. ‘We weren’t expecting to pay her anything and I got the sense she wasn’t expecting anything from us.’
Chapman’s representative has made it clear she is willing to sell her story for the right price, even though her plea bargain forbids her from profiting from her espionage
Despite hoping for an interview it did not take place in the end because Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, the modern day equivalent of the KGB, was against it.
An agent from the service accompanied Chapman to the shoot and remained in the hotel lobby throughout, only leaving when she was whisked away into a waiting SUV with blacked-out windows.
Despite the setback, Chapman’s life would not appear to be completely ruined.
The Russian spies were given a warm welcome by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and the country has a history of rewarding those in the espionage game.
The country’s last celebrity spy was Andrei Lugovoi who in 2006 was accused or murdering Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko in London. He is now a deputy in Russia’s parliament.
Robert Baum, Chapman’s New York lawyer, said he had not been informed about the photo shoot.
Highlights of the photo-shoot were posted on a MSNBC news report today.