*I was speculating earlier that the Russians might choose this Lugovoi gambit. This is just a trial balloon, though. Talk is cheap.
*Kindly globetrotter Angelina Jolie has also offered Anna a foot-up in show biz, if Anna wants to show up for the Russian premiere of Jolie's new spy movie. Sometimes it's handy to be the world's most notorious celebrity actress.
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/15/anna-chapman-parliamentarian.html
"What kind of career options are open to a pretty young Russian spy like Anna Chapman now that she has been busted by the FBI and deported from the United States? With her Facebook photos splashed on tabloid front pages across the world, espionage is probably out.
"But Chapman—known in Russia by her maiden name, Anna Kushchenko—could have a national political career ahead of her in Russia. She is already a local hero in her hometown of Volgograd (formerly known as Stalingrad), where a Kremlin-backed youth party last week called on the local mayor to make her an honored citizen. (((This Kremlin backed youth party" is a busy bunch of kids. Many allege that they're big on sponsoring computer DDOS attacks.)))
"While Chapman and 10 other accused spies were in jail in the United States, Volgograd’s official newspaper also held a songwriting contest to provide “moral support for our people,” says organizer Sergei Onishenko, “We think of her as our hero.” The winning song, a catchy ballad, includes the line, “You have not been broken by jail. You gave away none of our secrets.” (((Special BEYOND THE BEYOND gold star for the reader who snags that Chapman-worship YouTube video and/or dot-mp3.)))
"But it’s the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, or LDPR, that could be Chapman’s ticket to national politics. Alexander Potapov, head of the Volgograd branch of the LDPR, says that he “will do everything to promote her candidacy for a Duma seat at the next parliament elections” in 2012 if and when Chapman expresses an interest.
"The LDPR, headed by the flamboyant ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, has a track record of drafting infamous figures for political posts. In 2008 Andrei Lugovoi—wanted in Britain for the murder by poison of defector Alexander Litvinenko—was elected to the Duma on the LDPR party list. Part of his privileges as a member of the Russian parliament: immunity from prosecution, an official car, and a subsidized apartment in Moscow. “Things have worked out for him and they will work out for Anna, if she wants to be a famous politician,” says Potapov.
"Political inexperience is no obstacle to getting into Russia’s Duma, which since Vladimir Putin’s election to the presidency in 2000 has been little more than a rubber stamp for Kremlin-backed legislation. United Russia, the dominant pro-Kremlin party, has in recent years packed its party lists with celebrities such as gymnast Alina Kabaeva, (who has been romantically linked in the Russian press with Putin), (((oh for heaven's sake, knock it off with the ludicrous yet endless Putin-gymnast centipede rumor))) athlete Svetlana Khorkina (who has posed nude for Playboy), the Bolshoi Ballet’s prima ballerina Svetlana Zakharova, and a celebrity boxer and nude model Natalia Karpovich...."
(((Nice to see our Anna still apparently plugging along on her Facebook page there – and quoting a female politician, too.)))
(((Do people watch that Facebook page, despite the notion that they're a click away from Mata Hari? You bet they do.)))
"Chapman's becoming a regular Sarah Palin of spying, amassing a large and loyal band of e-followers..."
http://jezebel.com/5588979/russian-spy-anna-chapmans-bizarre-facebook-world
