Chapman detailed in BondiAnna: To Russia With Love how she was recruited by a London-based Moscow spy who wanted to use her for her expert networking skills, namely among rich and powerful men, according to the Daily Mail.
Intricate — albeit, discreet — vetting took place and it was during a session with what Chapman was believed was with a therapist where she was asked if she knew anything about “intelligence work.”
Soon, she was mixing it up with British business and political high society, taking trips to Paris and Geneva with wealthy lovers and admirers, and mixing it up with Russian oligarchs and Arab sheikhs.
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“I knew the effect I had on men. Nature had generously endowed me with the necessary attributes: a slim waist, a full chest, and a cascade of red hair,” she wrote, according to the Mail.
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Chapman noted that her outfits were “simple yet sexy,” she wore little makeup and kept “an effortless air about me.”
She added: “Most importantly, I didn’t try too hard to please,” explaining that she “never sought anyone’s approval — I simply was myself. And it worked like magic.”
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Chapman recalled a high-stakes poker game in London where she beat a group of millionaires and won a lucrative hedge fund job, leading her to even more access to the wealthy elite.
“The first hand wasn’t promising for me — I lost. I removed my knickers, much to the men’s delight,” she detailed.
But she eventually won, kept the rest of her clothing on and earned herself the job that began the following morning.
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Chapman’s undercover life came to an abrupt end when she pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government.
She was thrown in jail, stripped of her British passport, and sent back to Moscow, but in 2010, she and other prisoners were swapped in a major exchange.
Since her return to Russia, Chapman has worked for the government as head of a youth council, a model and TV host.
Chapman — whose father Vasily Kushchenko is believed to have been a senior official with the KGB while serving as the Russian ambassador to Kenya — needed permission the SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence service, to write her book, and its pages were thoroughly examined.
She claims the book is based on real events, though “5% of the events in the story are fictional” and some names were changed.
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Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.