(PHOTOS) Anna Chapman, Hottie Turned Russian Spy

by the Left Coast Rebel

Almost forgot - there's a femme fatale angle on the Russian spy ring. NY Post has information on her:

A ring of 11 Russian moles right out of a Cold War spy novel was smashed yesterday — and among those busted was a flame-haired, 007-worthy beauty who flitted from high-profile parties to top-secret meetings around Manhattan.

Russian national Anna Chapman — a 28-year-old divorcee with a masters in economics, an online real-estate business, a fancy Financial District apartment and a Victoria’s Secret body — had been passing information to a Russian government official every Wednesday since January, authorities charged.

Femme fatale Anna Chapman was no slouch, though:

In one particularly slick spy exchange on St. Patrick’s Day, Chapman pulled a laptop out of a tote bag in a bookstore at Warren and Greenwich streets in the West Village while her handler lurked outside, receiving her message on his own computer, the feds said. A similar exchange occurred at a Midtown coffee shop at 47th Street and 8th Ave.

Last week, an undercover agent pretending to be a Russian official arranged a meeting to talk about the weekly laptop exchanges, pretending to be ready to send the sexy spy on a mission to deliver a fake passport to another female agent, according to the federal complaint.

Chapman allegedly was also supposed to hold a magazine under her arm so her counterpart would recognize her, and plant a stamp on a wall map indicate the handoff was a success.

Another spy-movie-like maneuver took place in Brooklyn shortly after the meeting with the undercover agent when Chapman darted into a Verizon phone store to buy a cell using the name Irine Kutsov, and an address of "99 Fake Street," the feds said. She only planned to use the phone to "avoid detection of her conversations," the FBI alleged.

Photos of the Russian spy Anna Chapman:

When I read about Anna Chapman I wondered what kind of punishment she would face. Jeff Stein in WaPo reveals some facts on this:

No death penalty here. The three busted in Arlington, Va. were charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Two of the ten busted were also charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Since we don't have a Glienicke bridge between east and west Berlin anymore, my guess is they will be quietly stuffed on an Aeroflot back to Moscow. The government got what it wanted with the publicity of this case.

Death penalties are applied to US citizens who commit treason, not foreign spies. . . If any of these are shipped back (after they're convicted) we'll only do it for something in return. Offhand I'm not aware of any CIA officer in a Russian jail.

Cross posted to Left Coast Rebel.