Russian former spy Anna Chapman had allegedly attempted to seduce NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden into spilling American security secrets on the direct orders of Kremlin, former KGB agent Boris Karpichkov, who has defected to the West, revealed.
The flame-haired 32-year-old was reportedly hired by the Kremlin to lure 31-year-old Snowden into staying in the country so that Russian intelligence officials could continue to question him about U.S. security secrets, The Sunday People reported.
Although the two met only once, Chapman followed up that meeting by tweeting a marriage proposal soon afterward, on July 3, 2013, Karpichkov said, adding that the tweet had been the idea of Kremlin spy Vladimir Skorik.
"Anna is sophisticated enough to live with an American. There aren't many of those in the FSB (formerly the KGB). She would be prepared to use her obvious gifts," Former British Parliament Member Rupert Allason, an author of espionage books, had told the Mirror.
"But Snowden became concerned about what the consequences would be," Karpichkov said. "If Snowden had accepted, he would have a right to Russian citizenship. That would lock him in Russia. As a citizen he'd need permission to leave."
In 2010, the spy-turned-Russian celebrity was revealed to be part of a spy sleeper cell of Russian agents in the U.S. after her sexy personal snapshots went viral, according to Newsmax.
Not long after her outing, she was deported to Russia with nine other spies as part of a massive spy swap, where she began a modeling career and joined the leadership of the youth wing of the main pro-Kremlin party.
Then last year, the daughter of a Russian diplomat walked out of an NBC interview in Moscow when questions about the marriage proposal were brought up.
Meanwhile, shortly after releasing documents he obtained as a contractor for the National Security Agency, Snowden escaped to Hong Kong since his actions set off a debate within the U.S. about how much the government can collect data on its own citizens, New York Post reported.
After the U.S. attempted to extradite him, he reportedly tried to fly to Ecuador via Moscow and was granted asylum in August 2013 with a three-year residency permit. The United States revoked his passport, and he has been in Russia ever since.
Snowden allegedly also left his long-term girlfriend, Lindsay Mills, in Hawaii when he fled the U.S.
