Russian spy Anna Chapman to host television show

The red-headed Russian spy Anna Chapman will add to her colourful portfolio by presenting a weekly television show about mysterious phenomena, a television channel spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Chapman will host a weekly show called “Secrets of the World with Anna Chapman” on Ren TV, a channel known for its independent political reporting, a spokesman for the channel, Marina Volodina, told AFP.

The show will be experimental and will investigate the “most mysterious phenomena of the modern world,” Volodina said, but added that the channel would not reveal any details until the first show airs on January 21.

Since being extradited from the United States in a high-profile spy swap in July last year, Chapman has made attention-grabbing public appearances, posing in underwear for a men’s magazine and waving off Russian cosmonauts.

In December she gave her first television interview to state-owned Channel One television, appearing on a popular talk show along with her mother and sister, although she declined to speak about her espionage activities.

She also acted in a comedy spoof of a famous Soviet spy series that was aired on New Year’s Eve on the same channel, where she played the role of the companion of an undercover Soviet spy in Germany during World War II.

Ren TV is majority owned by National Media Group, which also controls the pro-Kremlin Izvestia newspaper, but its news coverage is known for giving air time to opposition figures not shown on state channels.

In December Chapman joined pro-Kremlin youth group Molodaya Gvardiya, or Young Guard, becoming a figurehead for the movement that is part of Russia’s ruling party United Russia, led by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.