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Russian spy suspect Anna Chapman: I regret life I’ve chosen

03 July 2010 02:12 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. The British ex-husband of alleged spy Anna Chapman has disclosed a series of emails she sent him weeks before her arrest, describing her regrets over the life she had chosen, APA reports quoting â€œTelegraphâ€.
Mrs Chapman, 28, told Alex Chapman she had â€œsuffered a lotâ€ because of her decision to put her career ahead of a chance to start a family with him. But she said she was determined to make her new life in America work, adding: â€œItâ€™s never too late to be happy and succeed.â€
Mrs Chapman, who was arrested in the US last weekend as part of an 11-strong suspected spying ring, was married to public school-educated Mr Chapman for four years before they divorced in 2006. But the couple remained close friends and were in regular phone and email contact.
Mr Chapman told The Daily Telegraph he and his then wife had discussed having a baby and he believes they would have started a family together if she hadnâ€™t become obsessed with a new career after â€œsecretiveâ€ meetings with Russians.
He said: â€œShe had to choose between her career and having a baby, and she chose her career. It was a really, really hard thing for both of us, but especially Anna.
â€œThe Anna I knew when we got married wouldnâ€™t have done that. At the time, she had already begun having secretive meetings with people she called ’Russian friendsâ€™. Looking back, I think she was being conditioned [by them]. She didnâ€™t seem happy.â€
On March 29, Mrs Chapman emailed her ex-husband from New York and disclosed she was still haunted by her decision. She wrote: â€œI suffered a lot by loving you and losing you â€¦â€ then referred to her decision not to have a baby.
Mr Chapman told her not to â€œdwell on painful thingsâ€ and she replied: â€œI think itâ€™s never too late to be happy and to succeed â€¦ being happy is like business. You have to plan, achieve and enjoy.â€
MI5 is investigating whether Mrs Chapman, the daughter of a former KGB agent, was recruited as a spy while she was living in London between 2002 and 2006. Earlier this week, an MI5 officer interviewed Mr Chapman, 30, near his home in Stuckton, Hants.
Mrs Chapman moved out of the marital home in 2005. Between the end of 2004 and 2006, she flitted between jobs at Barclays, a hedge fund and an aircraft hire firm, rubbing shoulders with businessmen including Philip Green and Vincent Tchenguiz.
Two more suspects admitted yesterday that they were Russian citizens living in the US under false identities, prosecutors said. In court papers, prosecutors said Michael Zottoli and Patricia Mills told authorities their real names were Mikhail Kutzik and Natalia Pereverzeva. They followed Juan Lazaro, who prosecutors claimed on Thursday admitted he was a member of the Russian intelligence service.
A judge ordered Mr Zottoli, Mrs Mills and another man, Mikhail Semenko, be detained, saying they were â€œat risk of flightâ€. Mrs Chapman was denied bail earlier this week.