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From Russia with love: Anna Kushchenko

Six years ago, Anna Kushchenko passed as a loving and charming girl from Russia. When she was arrested in the US for allegedly being part of a deep Russian spy ring, the world was surprised, writes Edwin Nuwagaba

When Alex Chapman then 21, the son of a British business executive, caught sight of Anna Kushchenko across a crowded dance floor in 2001, he was overtaken by a giddying belief that he would spend the rest of his life with “the most beautiful girl I had ever seen”. Chapman was working for a recording studio at the time.

Just five months later, without the consent of their parents, they were married in an equally impulsive ceremony in Moscow, where the new Mrs Chapman wore the same white dress which had caught her new husband’s eye the first time he saw her.

But nine years on, and with the four-year marriage over, Chapman, 30, is struggling to make sense of how his love for the glamorous redhead had brought a knock on his door from MI5.

Along the way, they disagreed and divorced in 2005, but remained in contact. Interviews with Chapman from international media provide the bulk of the information about Anna Chapman, particularly the nature of her dealings in New York. Anna is also reported to have been dating Michel Bittan, a prominent New York restaurant owner, at the time of her arrest.

According to Chapman, Anna was a charming, intelligent and carefree girl. But along the way, she became arrogant and obnoxious. She bragged about the rich and powerful people she was hobnobbing with and was so obsessed with money.

Whenever Chapman asked to come along as she went to meet her friends, she would discourage him, saying they would all be speaking Russian. At least this is the time he started second guessing her. Anna had started a real estate Internet firm which showed no signs for growth, but in what seemed like overnight, it had grown to employ 50 people. It is suspected that the firm was being used by the KGB for money laundering.

Chapman says Anna once told him that her domineering father Vasily, 53, had been a senior KGB agent. In fact, during the couple’s honeymoon, they went to Zimbabwe, where they met Anna’s father. Chapman says the old man was acting strange and never introduced him to his Russian friends. He had too much security around him and every time he was moving out of the house, he would be escorted by two security cars.

But even then, Chapman says he never suspected that his ex wife could have been a spy and if she was, he believes she could have been conditioned. From international news sources, it is being alleged that Anna married the British school boy to ingratiate into the London international business scene. Much of the debate rotates around whether Anna genuinely fell in love with Chapman or it was all arranged from the start.

Anna was born in Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad and spent much of her childhood with her grandmother while her father, a senior Russian diplomat, was posted to Kenya.
She studied a master’s degree in economics in Russia before moving to London in 2003 at the age of 21. She worked at the luxury Private Jets, Barclays.

She is said to have gotten the lifestyle she wanted in 2005 when she began working for Nicholas Camilleri at the Mayfair hedge fund -Navigator Asset Management Advisers.

As the chief executive’s PA, she accompanied the 50-year-old on his regular visits to West End nightclubs, where she attended parties alongside Top Shop billionaire Sir Philip Green and playboy entrepreneur Vincent Tchenguiz, a friend of Mr Camilleri.

The FBI suspects that the Russian secret service groomed her to nurture influential businessmen in the city. She was arrested, along with nine others, on June 27, 2010. Chapman pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the US Attorney General and was deported back to Russia on July 8, 2010.