It may be the most boring spy footage ever – but maybe that’s what spying is all about. On November 1, the FBI released surveillance video of Russian spy Anna Chapman, who was arrested and deported last year on suspicion of espionage; the video shows Chapman having a day out at the mall, buying leggings and trying on hats, before meeting with the person she thinks is her Russian handler, but who is really an FBI agent. The video is part of a cache of evidence against Chapman and nine other Russian spies amassed by the FBI in a 10-year undercover investigation dubbed “Operation Ghost Stories”, though it’s apparent that the spies never really uncovered any important information.
Although Chapman wasn’t the only spy to be caught in the net, nor was she the most senior, the so-called “hot spy” garnered the most headlines for her striking good looks. US Vice-president Joe Biden even joked on the Jay Leno Show: “It wasn’t my idea to send her back.” Now back in her native Russia, Chapman has become a minor celebrity and hosts television shows, though as The Telegraph‘s Moscow correspondent Andrew Osborne claimed, not very well.
