• [Dailystar Icon]
• News
• Latest News
• Channel 4

How glam Russian spy used beauty to trick pals and lovers - and was rewarded with top job

Anna Chapman has been appointed head of the Museum of Russian Intelligence, which showcases the achievements of the countrys long-running espionage operations against the West.

[Anna used her beauty to trick men]

Anna used her beauty to trick men(Image: east2west news)

A man duped by a glam Russian spy who used her beauty to seduce targets says he still finds it hard to believe she could be capable of espionage more than 20 years on. Anna Chapman infiltrated the UK and bewitched powerful men across London.

Rich businessmen and even politicians were all captivated by the beauty and intelligence of the red headed and green eyed stunner who had settled here from Russia and she would later move do the same in the US.

But no one knew she was a Russian intelligence agent who was deep undercover. And Brit financier Nicholas Camilleri has now lifted the lid on what she was like, two decades on from meeting her as a fresh faced 23 year old.

[Anna hoodwinked the West]

Anna hoodwinked the West(Image: instagram.com/anya.chapman)

Speaking to The Sun, he said he still "struggles to comprehend that the glamorous woman who accompanied him on many nights on the town had the potential to get up to no good."

Nicholas said: I find it hard to believe she could be capable of being a spy. She wasnt doing that when she was in London with me. People were enamoured with her. She knew what she was doing she was a social climber.

She had very good looks and a very nice personality. She was charming. She was a listener, and she had a good sense of humour.

Annas dark side and tale of how she managed to climb the ranks will now be told in a new two-part Channel 4 documentary, Spy Next Door: The Anna Chapman Story.

It will start at the beginning of her tale, when she arrived in the UK as a 20-year-old student in 2001, meeting up with Brighton DJ Marcus Read, who she had met earlier that year during a trip to Zimbabwe.

He said: At the end of the night this girl walked by, wearing a white hoodie. I could see a little cute face poking through. We kind of caught eyes and I ushered her over. She was highly seductive.

I hadnt met any girls with that power. I realised she was Russian and that made the whole thing quite exciting. She gave me her number and told me her name.Little did I know where this whole thing was going and how crazy it would get.

[Her life is being looked into with a Channel 4 documentary]

Her life is being looked into with a Channel 4 documentary(Image: instagram.com/anya.chapman)

After returning from Africa, the pair kept in touch and then she asked if she could come and see him in London. Marcus continued: The only thing that struck me was when she told me her dad was in the KGB.

The pair partied and on one night out she got talking to a man named Alex Chapman, who worked at record label Sony. She then swiftly dumped Marcus and moved in with Alex, marrying just a year later.

She later dumped him a year later after getting her British passport, and then started mixing with the elite, partying at VIP clubs. At one of these dos, she managed to persuade Brit financier Nicholas Camilleri of giving her a job as his PA.

Later Anna moved to the US and attracted the attention of the FBI, who began daily surveillance.

Ed Foley, the federal agent who led the surveillance team, said: She was pretty uneventful during the day at first. Just a normal 28-year-old going shopping at the store, doing yoga.

But at night it was a different story. She would get shuttled around in high-end limos, dressed to the nines, going to clubs that were VIP-only.

[ She later went to the US and was captured by the FBI ]

She later went to the US and was captured by the FBI(Image: instagram.com/anya.chapman)

She was, in fact, quite literally in bed with some of the top Wall Street financiers, people who had influence in political circles, city planning, finance.

She was very dangerous because she was mission-driven and did whatever it took with whomever it took to get whatever she needed for the betterment of the Russian intelligence service. Seduction is the oldest trick in the book, right? She knew exactly what she was doing.

The FBI then discovered Anna was one of ten deep-cover spies for Russia. She was arrested and later flown back to Moscow while Russia returned four high-level operatives who they had arrested for spying for the West.

These included double agent Sergei Skripal, who settled in Britain and was later poisoned with nerve agent Novichok along with his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in 2018. He survived, but some other Russians were not so lucky.

[She became a celebrity in Russia]

She became a celebrity in Russia(Image: instagram.com/anya.chapman)

Anna was lauded at home and became a celebrity for her role in spying on the West, but Putin is then believed to have started to not trust other spies who were caught.

A string of mysterious deaths then befell those he considered to be traitors and now living in the UK falling from roofs, jumping in front of Tube trains, helicopter crashes, impalement on railings. But not Anna.

Last October she was appointed head of the Museum of Russian Intelligence, which showcases the achievements of the countrys long-running espionage operations against the West.

[Dailystar Icon]

ENJOYED THIS STORY?

Choose Daily Star as a 'Preferred Source' on Google News for quick access to the news you value.