From Russia with love: Spy girl Anna Chapman poses in lingerie with a gun for Moscow's Maxim - This is 28-year-old Anna Chapman as you've never seen her before.
The flame-haired Russian agent has not shied away from publicity since returning to her native country in July and this raunchy magazine shoot will certainly do nothing to quell the public's fascination with her.
Clad in skimpy black lingerie, complete with suspender belt, she appears on the cover of this month's Russian Maxim with her finger poised on the trigger of a gun.
While the other agents sent back to Russia have kept a low profile, Ms Chapman certainly seems to making the most of her new found fame.
And today she was handed a top state medal by Kremlin president Dmitry Medvedev for her espionage work in the West. She is believed to be one of the youngest people ever to receive such an award.
Nine other agents thrown out of America with her accused of spying for Russia were also awarded highest honours at the ceremony.
A Kremlin statement marked the first unequivocal official admission from Moscow that Chapman was definitely an employee of Russian foreign intelligence when she was thrown out of America.
'A ceremony took place in the Kremlin today to hand top state honours to a number of Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) employees, including the spies who were working in the United States and returned to Russia in July,' said Kremlin spokeswoman Natalya Timakova.
No television or press pictures were released of the ceremony. The exact medals the spies received were not revealed but they were described as 'the state’s highest awards'.
The group of 10 spies, many of whom had been working for years undercover in the United States as sleeper agents, returned to Russia in a sensational Cold War-style spy swap.
In return, four Russians who secretly spied for MI6 and the CIA were allowed to go free in the West.
After she returned to Russia in July, Chapman was stripped of her British passport for which she had qualified after marrying a former public schoolboy, Alex Chapman.
In the weeks after their return, strongman prime minister Vladimir Putin met the spies and sang patriotic songs with them.
He blamed a traitor - who has so far not been named - for exposing them.
Before today's ceremony, espionage experts in the East and West raised doubts as to whether Chapman was in fact a fully fledged agent who conducted heroic work for the Russian state.
There were claims the glamorous socialite - whose semi-naked pictures were sold by her ex-husband after her arrest in New York - was in reality only a minor player unwittingly caught in the spy scandal.
Today’s award by President Medvedev removes any doubt. Moscow now admits she was a fully-fledged spy worthy of one of the highest honours Russia can bestow.
This may renew interest in Chapman’s activities during the six or so years she lived in Britain.
So far no evidence has emerged that she was spying during this period but she is known to have spent far longer in London than New York.
Unlike the other spies, Chapman has had a high public profile since returning to Russia.
Last week she was appointed advisor to a Russian bank, and in this capacity she attended a space launch at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
She is reported to be writing a book, though it is believed she has been barred from selling her story. ( dailymail.co.uk )
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