Top honour for sexy Russian spy

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has handed out his country's top awards to a group of spies who returned to Russia from the United States in a July 'spy swap'.

The group includes the glamorous Anna Chapman, who has never been far from the headlines since the story first broke.

A news agency said a number of employees of Russia's SVR intelligence agency were given "the highest state awards" at the Kremlin ceremony.

The facts that are known about the work of the spies in the United States suggest that they were not particularly successful at uncovering any major secrets, but since their return to Russia they have been lauded as heroes.

For the two former "superpowers" it was their biggest single spy swap since the days of the Cold War.

Shortly after their return, the Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, himself a former Russian agent in East Germany, said he had met with the deportees and they sang patriotic songs together. He said at the time that the spies would have a bright future in Russia.

Since the spy swap at Vienna Airport, when the 10 alleged Russian sleeper agents were swapped for four Russians serving jail sentences for links with Western intelligence agencies, all 10 deportees have kept a very low profile. They have not spoken to the media and little is known of what they are doing now.

The only exception is Anna Chapman, the redhead who made headlines with her raunchy Facebook photos. She has already posed for a Russian glossy magazine, and recently made an appearance at Baikonur, the site on the Kazakh steppe used for Russian spacecraft launches.

Ms Chapman travelled to the site to wish a joint US-Russian space mission well, but was shielded from reporters by a burly security guard.

Russian media reported that she is now working as an adviser for a leading Russian bank.

There have also been rumours that she plans to launch a career in show business or politics.

- INDEPENDENT