Is Anna Chapman a Russian Spy?

Is Anna Chapman a Russian Spy? The 28 year old New Yorker was arrested as part of a U.S. government round up of 10 suspected Russian spies in neighborhoods around New York, Washington DC and Boston and another in Cyprus. Chapman seems to have caught the public eye for the most part because she’s quite pretty – in fact, she looks very much like the kind of girl who could be reading Frockable right now.

So the question is, does the fact that she was ensnared in an FBI sting that led her to meet with an undercover FBI agent and agree to transport a fake passport to another supposed Russian agent mean that she’s a dangerous threat to national security?  It sure looks like she was up to something.

 According to the Washington Post, she accepted the passport, and when the undercover agent asked her “Are you ready for this step?” she allegedly  replied “Shit, of course.”

She also bought a cell phone under an assumed name and threw it away minutes after purchase. She was arrested Sunday evening after attempting to pass off the bogus passport.

She, along with the other “americanized” alleged Russian agents involved in the spy ring were, it seems, inserted into America with the hopes of getting close to people in policy making circles.  The government’s case against them sounds like something straight out of a cold war spy film, complete with secret wireless networks, coded greetings in public places, invisible ink and brush past exchanges in crowded streets.

None of the 10 have been charged with actual espionage so far – they’re only accused of “acting as unlawful and unregistered agents of a foreign government.”  That means that even the Justice Department, who insist that these alleged Russian agents are a major threat, don’t think they actually uncovered anything classified.

The Russian government insists that the charges are baseless, and more than a little ridiculous.

(Photo via: NYPost)