Anna Chapman Nude In Playboy, Nabs Political Post

Dec. 22, 2010 — -- Nude photos in Playboy are apparently no bar to a political career in Russia. At a ceremony in Moscow today, Russian spy Anna Chapman was appointed a leader of the youth branch of Vladimir Putin's political party, even though she will appear naked in the men's magazine next month.

Chapman has been named head of a new subdivision within the Young Guard, the youth branch of Putin's United Russia party.

Candid nude photos that an ex-boyfriend snapped of Chapman will appear in the January issue of Playboy as part of an article about Chapman and her father. Other nude and semi-nude photos of Chapman appeared in the British and U.S. press last summer, not long after Chapman and nine other members of a Russian spy ring were exposed in the U.S.

CLICK HERE TO SEE PHOTOS OF ANNA CHAPMAN AND THE RUSSIAN SPY RING

The Young Guard is strongly pro-government, often holding street demonstrations, and was criticized in November after a Russian investigative journalist was badly beaten. Oleg Kashin, who had reported on opposition to a highway planned for a Moscow forest, was attacked on a Moscow street by unidentified assailants. Kashin had been criticized by the Young Guard on its web site. The Young Guard had published a picture of Kashin with the label "Will Be Punished," but condemned the attack on Kashin and denied any involvement.

Chapman, born Anya Kushchenko, and her fellow spies all pleaded guilty to espionage in a Manhattan courthouse in July. They were immediately flown to Vienna to be exchanged for accused Western agents held by Russia in the largest U.S.-Russia spy swap since the Cold War.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev bestowed awards on Chapman and the nine other members of the ring earlier this year. A Kremlin spokeswoman told reporters that "top state awards were presented" to a number of officers in the SVR – Russia's foreign intelligence service -- including the "intelligence agents who worked in the United States and returned to Russia in July."

Chapman also appeared in leather in photos for Maxim magazine, as well as appearing in a sexy photo In September, the men of New York who knew Chapman spoke to Details magazine about their alluring friend.

"She was a seductress," her friend Dennis Hirdt, a Roberto Cavalli model, told Details magazine: "When I first met her, from the get-go: Little hand touches. Whispers. When you're in a loud place it kind of lends itself to getting close to someone and maybe putting a hand on the cheek, or maybe 'by accident' lips rubbing against an earlobe."

On the New York club scene where she was a regular, friends of Chapman told ABC News they thought she was either a billionaire or hooker and described an overly flirtatious femme fatale who frequented the most exclusive bars and restaurants dressed in platform heels and designer duds.

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