Boris Karpichkov, a former KGB agent, claims that a plan was launched for Chapman, 32, to keep Snowden, 31, in Moscow so that Russian agents could continue to question him about US security secrets, according to a new report.
Snowden and Chapman met only once, Karpichkov said. But Chapman followed up that meeting last year with a tweet heard round the world.
“Snowden,” she tweeted, “will you marry me?!”According to Karpichkov, it was all a part of the plan.
“But Snowden became concerned about what the consequences would be,” Karpichkov told London’s Sunday People.“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.”
Last year, Chapman walked out of an NBC interview in Moscow after the spy-turned-Russian celebrity refused to answer questions about her proposal to Snowden.
The real-life Bond girl made headlines in 2010 when she was revealed to be part of a sleeper cell of Russian agents in the US and her sexy personal snapshots went viral.
Not long after her outing, she was deported to Russia with nine other spies as part of a massive swap.
Before being outed as a spy, Chapman — the daughter of a Russian diplomat — worked as a real estate agent in New York City.
Following her return to Russia, Chapman worked as a model, became the celebrity face of a Moscow bank and joined the leadership of the youth wing of the main pro-Kremlin party.
Snowden left his long-term girlfriend, Lindsay Mills, in Hawaii when he fled the US and was granted asylum in Moscow in August 2013, after six weeks in limbo at the city’s airport.
Snowden was reunited with Mills over the summer in Russia. The two were pictured together in Moscow on a theater date at the time.
Snowden now has a three-year residency permit.
He is wanted in the US after leaking classified details of government surveillance programs.
