Volgograd: Anna Chapman, accused of espionage in USA, is song heroine and potential political figure

The Volgograd-based newspaper "Gorodskie Vesti" (City News) announced a contest "Let's help our people with a good song!" to the best work about Anna Chapman, who was detained in the USA along with other nine suspected spies who worked for Russia. Local political scientists do not exclude that Chapman's surname will appear in the list of candidates for the State Duma in 2011.

Let us remind you that the contest was announced a week ago, when Anna was still in the USA, and the Volgograd newspaper, as its editor Andrei Serenko said, offered city dwellers to morally support her. In his opinion, in spite of the fact that Ms Chapman is in Russia since July 9, the idea of the contest is still topical. So far, two works have been presented; and the editorial staff plans to sum up the contest outcomes in the first week of August.

Anna Chapman (Kuschenko), 28, had lived in Volgograd for 17 years. According to her close friend - lawyer Vyacheslav Serkov, who asserts that he was Anna's first love, - he had always admired her erudition, education, wit and active character. According to Vyacheslav, they met again after a long separation, when Anna came to Volgograd with her the future husband - a Briton Alex Chapman. In the opinion of Serkov, Anna's marriage with Chapman was fictitious, and under the initiative of the girl.

Vyacheslav learnt about the spy scandal from his friend and believes that the roots of all these events should be sought in the work of her father - a Russian diplomat-Africanist, the local newspaper named "Pervaya Gazeta" writes.

As regional experts think, Anna Chapman, ironically treated by the western press as "agent 90-60-90", may be put on the Volgograd regional list of candidates for the State Duma of the Russian Federation in 2011.

Vitaly Arkov, a political scientist from Volgograd, believes, in particular, that "Chapman will be demanded by many political parties, which experience - on the eve of parliamentary elections - a deficit of bright celebrities from the province." "Political legalization under Andrei Lugovoy's scenario" is treated by local experts as her possible future.

"However, irrespective of how Anna Chapman's story will now develop, it is obvious that she has all the chances to become a new brand of Volgograd," said another political scientist - Andrei Mironov.

In the meantime, Volgograd activists offer to award Anna Chapman with the title of city's honourable citizen. This was reported by the "BaltInfo" with reference to the "NPR Group", which has already sent a letter with a respective initiative to Volgograd Mayor Roman Grebennikov. "We believe that Ms Chapman brought fame to our country by her activities in the USA and glorified Volgograd all over the world", runs the letter.