Femme fatale spy Chapman at centre of picture frenzy
Of all the images to filter out from the States in the aftermath of spy ring brouhaha it is the smiling face of Anna Chapman who has most captivated picture desk editors.
Whilst most of her partners in espionage were relegated to the inside pages Chapman was plastered on the front of newsstands the world over.
It was a situation aided in no small part by her prolific web presence and apparently extravagant lifestyle which saw the red haired 28 year old undercover spook flaunt her assets by appearing in numerous photo shoots.
Several undated images were taken from Russian social networking site "Odnoklassniki", or Classmates, depicted Chapman in a variety of poses and her Facebook profile is said to have contained over 90 ‘glamour’ shots prior to being taken down.
But was this simply vanity? Part of a web of deception? How deeply undercover was she? What did she uncover? Intelligence agencies are scrabbling to find out.
Thought to be the daughter of a Russian diplomat Chapman previously worked in London for Barclays and a private aircraft hire company before moving to New York in Feb 2010 to set up an online property business.
It is this British connection which has alarmed MI5 and given her added attention in the press here, amidst reports that she is a ‘practised deceiver’ whose real name is Anya Kuschenko.
Chapman was a property millionaire as CEO of PropertyFinder Ltd, according to her LinkedIn page, although doubts have emerged as to the veracity of some of the claimed dates and positions. Her Twitter account meanwhile was used as a business tool to plug property in the NYC area.
In this video posted by Russia Today Chapman brags over how easy it is to move through high society circles.