From Russia with love for 007 audience

MOSCOW - Never mind Daniel Craig's debut as 007. The Kremlin is out to trump him with Agent 90-60-90, the vital statistics (in centimetres) of a glamorous Kalashnikov-toting Russian spy who saves the world in a figure-hugging latex suit.

The Russian Government is at least partly funding a film with the working title Krasivaya (The Beautiful One), starring Anastasia Zavorotnyuk.

As the tough but gorgeous Zavorotnyuk single-handedly defeats ruthless terrorists, the aim is not simply to thrill Russian moviegoers, but to inculcate patriotism and pride in the FSB security service, the successor organisation to the KGB.

Judging by other Kremlin-backed films, the enemy in Krasivaya is likely to be Islamic radicals, possibly with links to Chechen separatists, with the West on the sidelines.

In one scene, it is reported, Zavorotnyuk's character - so far unnamed - plunges from the top of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, while eliminating 40 terrorists. In another she fires the 40-tonne Tsar Cannon.

The film is being shot in Russia, Ukraine, France, Malaysia, Italy, Cuba and Norway, and is to be released in the northern autumn, the same time as Craig appears as 007 in Casino Royale. Though Russians enjoy Bond movies, they do not like the way they are often portrayed as ham-fisted baddies.

- INDEPENDENT