After racy photo spreads, TV shows, perfume lines, and a brief foray into fashion, there was really only one mission left for former spy and merciless self-promoter Anna Chapman: politics.
Russia’s boss-for-life Vladimir Putin has reportedly asked former American sleeper agent Anna Chapman to stand for a seat in parliament as a candidate for his United Russia party representing her hometown of Volgograd, the Daily Telegraph reports.
She’s prepared well for a career in politics, associating herself with plenty of nationalist symbolism and the political party of an, erm, sure winner.
Space programs always good for conjuring up a sense national pride and reliving the cold war glory days. Last fall, Anna tapped into some of that sentiment, showing up as a VIP at the launch for a Soyuz spacecraft and getting some needling payback points given that an American astronaut was on board at the time.
In December, she officially hitched her wagon to Putin’s party and made her debut as a member of United Russia’s youth wing, the Young Guard, with the ambiguous job description of “heroine of her generation.”
And as Russo-Japanese relations have turned nasty over disputed claims to the Kuril Islands, Chapman has announced she’ll travel there with the Young Guard to make a documentary and flip off Japan byraising a Russian flag overhead.
Chapman’s nonstop hyping of her commercial brand probably helps her political fortunes, too. Her TV shows and racy photo spreads have only added to her name recognition such that she’s had totrademark it in order to prevent knockoff products from interfering with her own. (Plans to design uniforms for Russia’s astronauts, alas, have fallen through.)
If she makes it into parliament, Anna won’t be the Duma’s only (alleged) spook caught in the act. It’s also home to former KGB bodyguard Andrey Lugovoy. Lugovoy made headlines in 2007 when British authorities traced the radioactive isotope used to poison Putin critic Alexander Litvinenko back to him and demanded his extradition. He’s now an MP for Russia’s Liberal Democratic Party, enjoying theimmunity from prosecution that comes with the job.
With so many cushy jobs available in government and the private sector, Russia really is a former spy’s paradise.
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