How Anna Chapman Became the Face of Kremlin Capitalism

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How much does she earn? That’s private, but “it would be a sin for her to complain,” says Belkin before noting that Chapman does charity work, is athletic, leads a healthy lifestyle, believes in the “old, traditional Russian connection to family,” is “super-reliable,” and speaks foreign languages. “She’s just generally a good person,” he says. “She’s never taken money she didn’t earn.”

An hour after we wrapped up our conversation, a Soyuz rocket carrying supplies for the space station took off from Baikonur 1,000 miles away. It was the first launch after NASA’s final shuttle landing and was supposed to represent a passing of the baton to Russia. It was not a smooth handoff: The unmanned rocket and cargo ship crashed in eastern Russia five minutes after takeoff.

The Baikonur crash is just one of many recent Russian disasters, and a reminder that the country has yet to evolve into the kind of modern and high-functioning society that Russia’s new business elites yearn to build. The decision by Putin to reclaim the Presidency dealt a crushing blow to Medvedev’s reputation and may also signal the end of his still-unrealized attempts to transform the Russian economy. The ruble recently hit a two-year low against the dollar.

There is concern in the business community about whether anyone will manage the economy as well as long-serving Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, who resigned on Sept. 26 after a public spat with Medvedev. Putin’s return may bring some political clarity and avert the potential for a leadership struggle between rival camps in the Kremlin, but a short-term calming of market fears is no substitute for real and lasting reform.

I would like to tell you what Anna Chapman had to say about all this on the terrace of O2. After weeks of mixed messages, she agreed to meet for coffee on a late summer evening, on the condition that I not interview her nor provide details about what she said. She wanted to get a feel for whether she might want to talk at a later date. We were supposed to meet in the lobby, but she slipped past me and was waiting upstairs on the roof.

Chapman radiates optimism. Her Western passports have been stripped, and she will likely never set foot in the U.S. again. Yet she is unmistakably American in her love of all things can-do. She has just begun blogging on the topic, in fact. In her post for Venture Business News, she hit on a theme spoken by nearly everyone I met in Russia’s technology community: belief.

Wealthy Russians transferred at least $50 billion to overseas banks in the past year, effectively casting billions of votes of no-confidence. Those who are trying to build something big and new in Moscow say that, although it doesn’t come easy to them, Russians need to be positive about the future, to believe they can succeed at home. For the post’s title, Chapman chose the same phrase she used for New York Entrepreneur Week in 2009: “Be Scared, but Act.” “Your creation—whether it is a product, site, technology, or even a business process—consistently produces in you something new,” she wrote. “A positive attitude plays a huge role in success. … Looking back on my experience, I can assure you that my decision to leave a steady job and start my own business [has] given me a lot more than I could ever imagine. And now it seems to me that every day is special; it is the pinnacle of life and the journey of human freedom.”

What does that mean? Will Chapman use her action figure status to actually stand for economic reform, liberalization, innovation? Or will she remain forever tethered to the ways of Putin, the man who made her famous, profiting from a system that inevitably will hold Russia back? If she can solve her own contradictions, maybe Russia can as well.

I would have liked to ask her all of that on the record. Instead, I escorted her down the elevators, through the gilded lobby and up to the revolving doors that let out onto Tverskaya Street. She would think about whether she wanted to speak on the record, she said. I’m still waiting for her answer.

With Olga Razumovskaya

Thornburgh is a Bloomberg Businessweek contributor.