Stranger things have happened. The alleged assassin of Alexander Litvinenko, Andrei Lugovoi won himself a seat in the Duma with widespread popularity. Vitali Kaloyev, a bereaved father who murdered a Swiss air traffic controller, also made his way into the Duma. Russian voters have a real attraction to martyrs than find themselves immersed in international imbroglios.
Plus, the Duma is no stranger to pretty faces. After Alina Kabaeva (the gymnast once rumored to be Putin’s concubine), Svetlana Khorkina, Natalia Karpovich, and now possibly Anna Chapman, soon it is going to be hard to keep Silvio Berlusconi out of the country.
Read Owen Matthews’s report in Newsweek on the LDPR’s attempts to recruit Chapman to launch her political career.