Russian spy Anna Chapman poses for men's magazine

The 28-year-old appears on the cover of Russian Maxim magazine wearing lace underwear, suspenders and long black gloves.

Miss Chapman was one of 10 Russian spies exchanged for four Western agents released by Moscow in a spy swap on the tarmac at Vienna airport with echoes of the Soviet era.

They were expelled from the US after pleading guilty in a Manhattan court to conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign country.

The racy photo shoot is the latest in a string of headline-grabbing stunts since she returned to Russia in July.

Reports have suggested that Miss Chapman was trying to land a £164,000 deal to sell her story to the media and is considering posing nude for Playboy magazine.

In August she got into trouble with a Russian magazine called Heat after she posted a series of scantily-clad pictures of herself on Facebook, which had been taken during a shoot with the magazine. The magazine has threatened legal action against her for breach of contract.

In September she spoke about launching her own website, and said in an interview in Der Spiegel: "The contact information for my PR people will be listed there. [But] I am not permitted to talk about my time in America."

Earlier this month, Miss Chapman made a surprise appearance at the remote Baikonur cosmodrome for the launch of a Russian rocket carrying a Russian-American crew into space.

FondServisBank, which works with Russian companies in the aerospace industry, said that it had hired Ms Chapman to work for the bank, bringing innovation to its information technologies.

On Sunday, Dmity Medvedev, the Russian president, awarded Ms Chapman and her fellow spies medals for their service.

There is growing speculation that Ms Chapman may enter politics.

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