Anna Chapman's Ex Says Alleged Spy's Dad was KGB
LONDON (CBS/AP) The ex-husband of alleged spy Anna Chapman says that Chapman's father was a high-ranking KGB officer - and he wasn't surprised to learn about his former wife's secret life, a British newspaper reported Friday.
Alex Chapman told London's Daily Telegraph that when he saw that his ex-wife had been arrested over allegations of spying "it didn't come as much of a surprise."
"Towards the end of our marriage she became very secretive, going for meetings on her own with 'Russian friends,' and I guess it might have been because she was in contact with the Russian government," he was quoted as saying in the Friday article.
Alex Chapman, 30, said he'd been interviewed by MI5, Britain's domestic spy agency, earlier this week.
"The officer told me she would need everything and I told her what I knew," the newspaper quoted him as saying.
The couple was married in Russia in 2002, divorced in 2006.
Anna Chapman, one of 10 alleged members of a Russian spy ring arrested in the United States, has been denied bail. An 11th alleged member of the spy ring jumped bail in Cyprus, and police there are hunting for him.
Alex Chapman said his ex-wife - whose maiden name was Anna Kushchenko - told him her father had been "an agent in 'old Russia'" who had been "high up in the ranks of the KGB."
Government officials would not comment on the investigation, but acknowledged that intelligence and law enforcement officers would be attempting to verify details of Chapman's time in London, including her contacts in the business community and her frequent appearances at glitzy nightclubs.
