Former Russian spy Anna Chapman preparing for career as an MP
Former Russian spy Anna Chapman appears to be lining herself up to become an MP for Vladimir Putin's ruling United Russia party, organising what looks suspiciously like an election campaign.
Miss Chapman, 28, joined the youth wing or Young Guard of the party in December, becoming one of its most glamorous leaders. Revelling in her celebrity as one of the ten spies America deported last summer, her brief was to instil patriotism in young Russians.
Now, she is going one step further, launching what looks like a campaign for parliamentary elections this December.
Her first campaign event is expected to take place in her native Volgograd, a city in southern Russia formerly called Stalingrad, this week when she is due to take part in an official commemoration of the 68th anniversary of the Soviet defeat of the Nazis in the Battle of Stalingrad.
Analysts say the move, combined with a planned visit to a local orphanage in March, looks like a calculated attempt to try to win a coveted spot on the local party list for the United Russia party.
"Chapman has started to make an energetic political career," Vitaly Arkov, a local political analyst, told the Nezavisimaya Gazeta national daily. "Anna will probably find a place on the ruling party's list for the elections to parliament. Taking into account her Volgograd roots, her big popularity in the city, and her forthcoming participation in the status-laden Stalingrad victory celebrations, it looks likely she will enter parliament representing the Volgograd region."
Some analysts said she was likely to face opposition from rival politicians anxious to keep their cushy positions and that sections of the local elite were worried that she would overshadow them.
Since her humiliating deportation from the United States last summer, Miss Chapman has been busy turning disaster into triumph. She has her own weekly prime time TV programme, has been the subject of a sugary 'This is Your Life' style show, and has also done a spot of erotic modelling.
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