Spy Swap May Send Online Poker Fan Anna Chapman to Russia
Like a vision from the grim days of the Berlin Wall, Russia and the US are arranging to hold a spy swap involving the ten people detained by the FBI last week. Included in the negotiations is Anna Chapman, the public face of the spy scandal notede for her interest in operating an online poker network.According to the Daily Mail, the US will send the Russians home in exchange for Russian prisoners in jail for spying for the western powers. Both sides seem eager to complete the exchange with the smallest possible delay and publicity, as neither wants its tradecraft or its reputation laid bare for public comment.
Chapman received the lion's share of attention, being a gorgeous young woman socializing with men high up in the military and US intelligence. Contacts of hers in Russia say they hardly knew her, and that she had approached them to find funding for her online gambling project, not as an espionage agent.
Chapman did have a business handling online real estate listings, although real estate professionals say she knew nothing about the business.
Her ex-husband did not know the specifics of either her real estate career or the Internet poker project, but said their marriage in Britain dissolved after a number of mysterious contacts by shadowy Russian figures. He said Chapman chose to pursue her career over their relationship.
The old-fashioned idea of a spy swap was apparently proposed by the Obama administration as a way to get the spy scandal out of the papers and resume a pursuit of warming relations between the two countries. Chapman, the daughter of a former KGB agent, may have to put her online poker site on hold, as it would be illegal in Russia.
