MOSCOW — A senior Russian intelligence officer convicted of working for the United States fled Russia on a train just before the Americans busted his 10 sleeper agents.
Details of Col. Alexander Poteyev's quick escape and farewell text message to his wife — asking her to "try to take it calmly" — were among evidence produced by the court Monday as it found him guilty in absentia of high treason and desertion. Pinup spy Anna Chapman, one of the 10 agents deported from the U.S. in July, testified during the closed trial that only Poteyev could have provided the information that led to their arrest last summer, Russian news agencies reported, citing a summary of the evidence read by the judge as he issued his ruling.
Chapman testified that she was caught after an undercover U.S. agent contacted her using a code that only Poteyev and her personal handler knew, the reports said. She said she immediately felt during the meeting that something was wrong and called her handler in Moscow, who confirmed her suspicions. Chapman and others were arrested shortly after.
The agents, who were arrested a year ago Monday, were deported in exchange for four suspected Western agents who had been imprisoned in Russia. It was the biggest spy swap since the Cold War.
The Moscow military court sentenced the 59-year-old colonel to 25 years in prison and also stripped him of his rank and state medals.
The court said Poteyev got word that the agents were being rounded up in the U.S. and was in such a hurry to leave Russia that he rushed out of a meeting at intelligence headquarters, the Interfax news agency reported. It said Poteyev fled to Belarus, crossed the border into Ukraine and then moved west to Germany and, finally, on to the United States using a passport in another person's name.
Anna Vasil’yevna Chapman born Anna Vasil’yevna Kushchyenko 23 February 1982 is a Russian national, who while living in New York, United States was arrested along with nine others on 27 June 2010, on suspicion of working for the Illegals Program spy ring under the Russian Federation's external intelligence agency, the SVR (Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki). Chapman pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the U.S. Attorney General, and was deported back to Russia on 8 July 2010, as part of a prisoner swap.
Chapman was born Anna Vasil’yevna Kushchyenko in Volgograd, according to U.S. authorities, and her father was employed in the Russian embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. According to Chapman's British ex-husband, her father, Vasily Kushchenko, was also a senior KGB official, although this is unsubstantiated. Chapman earned a Masters degrees in economics with first class honours from Moscow University .
London: 2001–2006
Chapman moved to London in 2000 or 2001, working at NetJets, Barclays Bank and allegedly at a few other companies for brief periods.She met Alex Chapman at a London Docklands rave party in 2001 and they married shortly thereafter in Moscow; as a result she gained dual Russian-British citizenship, and a British passport. After Anna was arrested in New York, Alex engaged media publicist Max Clifford, and sold his story to The Daily Telegraph newspaper.
New York: 2006–2010
She took up residence at 20 Exchange Place, one block from Wall Street in Manhattan. Alex has stated that Anna told him the enterprise was continually in the red for the first couple of years, and then suddenly in 2009, she had as many as 50 employees and a successful business. Her LinkedIn social networking site profile identified her as CEO of PropertyFinder LLC, a website selling real estate internationally.She is reported to have been dating Michel Bittan, a prominent New York restaurant owner. She later described her time in the US with the Charles Dickens quote, "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times".
Russia: 2010–present
Late December 2010 Chapman was appointed to the public council of Young Guard of United Russia. According to the organization she "will be engaged in educating young people".On 21 January 2011, Chapman began hosting a weekly TV show in Russia called Secrets of the World for REN TV.
In June 2011, Anna became editor of Venture Business News magazine, according to Bloomberg News.
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