1. Anna Vasilyevna Chapman is a Russian former intelligence agent, media personality, and model who was arrested in the United States on 27 June 2010 as part of the Illegals Program, a Russian spy ring.
28 Facts About Anna Chapman
1. 2.
Anna Chapman had previously gained British citizenship through marriage, which she used to gain residency in the US.
3.
Since her return to Russia, Anna Chapman has worked in a variety of fields, including for the government as head of a youth council, a catwalk model in Russian fashion shows, and running a television series.
4.
In 2003, or 2004, Anna Chapman moved to London where she worked at NetJets and Barclays.
5.
In March 2018, it was reported that Alex Anna Chapman had died in May 2015, aged 36, from a drug overdose.
6.
In 2009, Anna Chapman moved to New York, taking up residence at 20 Exchange Place, one block from Wall Street in Manhattan.
7.
Anna Chapman was reportedly in a relationship with Michel Bittan, a divorced Israeli-Moroccan restaurant owner, while she was living in New York.
8.
Anna Chapman later described her time in the United States with the Charles Dickens quote, "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times".
9.
Anna Chapman pleaded guilty to conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the US Attorney General.
10.
Anna Chapman is one of only two of the Illegals Program Russians arrested in June 2010 who did not use an assumed name.
11.
Anna Chapman is believed to have been recruited by the SVR in or around 2000.
12.
But, after making a series of phone calls to her father Vasily Kushchenko in Moscow, Anna Chapman took his advice and handed the passport in at a local police station.
13.
Steps were taken to exclude Anna Chapman, meaning she could not travel to the UK.
14.
In late December 2010, Anna Chapman was appointed to the public council of Young Guard of United Russia.
15.
On 21 January 2011, Anna Chapman began hosting a weekly TV show in Russia called Secrets of the World for REN TV.
16.
In June 2011, Anna Chapman was appointed as editor of Venture Business News magazine, according to Bloomberg News.
17.
Anna Chapman testified to the closed trial in absentia of Col.
18.
Anna Chapman testified that only Poteyev could have provided the US authorities with the information that led to her arrest in 2010; She alleged that she was arrested shortly after an undercover US agent contacted her using a code that only Poteyev and her personal handler would have known.
19.
In 2012, FBI counter-intelligence chief Frank Figliuzzi said that Anna Chapman almost caught a senior member of Barack Obama's cabinet in a honey trap operation.
20.
Anna Chapman was sighted in the Armenian breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh in August 2013.
21.
Anna Chapman reportedly was working on her television show, Mysteries of the World.
22.
Anna Chapman's visit caused an outcry in Azerbaijan; its foreign ministry declared that Chapman and the other Russian visitors would be classified as personae non gratae in Azerbaijan.
23.
Anna Chapman later visited Tsitsernakaberd, a memorial in Armenia dedicated to the victims of the Armenian genocide.
24.
Anna Chapman said in an interview that her visit to Armenia taught her the importance of family relationships, and that her best friends were Armenians.
25.
Anna Chapman said that she was impressed by the family values expressed in Armenian society, saying that Russian society lacked that, and she was learning a lot from Armenia.
26.
Anna Chapman was described by local media in New York as "stunning" and a regular of exclusive bars and restaurants.
27.
Anna Chapman has parlayed her media capital through Twitter, where she asked Edward Snowden to marry her, and on Instagram, which she has used to voice her political opinions.
28.
Anna Chapman gave birth to a child in 2015, but kept the identity of the father secret.