WASHINGTON – Unaware the FBI has her under surveillance, Russian spy Anna Chapman buys leggings and tries on hats at Macy’s. A few months later, cameras watch her in a New York coffee shop where she meets with someone she thinks is her Russian handler. It’s really an undercover FBI agent.
Tapes, documents and photos released Monday describe and sometimes show how Chapman, now a celebrity back in Russia, and other members of a ring of sleeper spies passed instructions, information and cash. The ring was shut down in June 2010 after a decade-long counterintelligence probe that led to the biggest spy swap since the Cold War.
The FBI released the material to The Associated Press in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. The investigation was code-named “Ghost Stories,” the release of documents on Halloween a coincidence.
While the deep-cover agents didn’t steal any secrets, an FBI counterintelligence official told the AP they were making progress.
They “were getting very close to penetrating U.S. policymaking circles” through a friend of a U.S. Cabinet official, said C. Frank Figliuzzi, FBI assistant director for counterintelligence.
He did not name names, but Russian spy Cynthia Murphy of Montclair, N.J., provided financial planning for venture capitalist Alan
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