THE head of Russia’s deep cover US spying operations has betrayed the network and defected, a Russian paper said, potentially giving the West one of its biggest intelligence coups since the end of the Cold War.

RUSSIAN spy Anna Chapman has stripped off for a cover spread in a men’s magazine, striking a number of James Bond-style poses in her latest stunt since she left the United States.

A COURT hearing for three suspects in the Russia spy case was postponed yesterday amid growing speculation the US and Russia are arranging a prisoner swap.

SUSPECTED Russian spy Anna Chapman was said to be “embarrassed” by the media coverage generated by her arrest as her ex-husband yesterday revealed more intimate details about their relationship.

SECURITY concerns prompted the Government to consider a recall of more than two million Irish passports earlier this year – the same version of passport linked to an alleged Russian spy facing charges in the US.

US AGENTS shattered an alleged Russian spy ring after a decade-long probe, announcing the arrest of 10 “deep-cover” suspects accused of infiltrating policymaking and reporting back to Moscow.

Diplomats were tonight trying to trace records of an Irish passport given to a US-based Russian spy on a debriefing mission.

A false Irish passport was allegedly to be used by members of a Russian spy ring arrested in the United States, it was disclosed today.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has said that one of the people arrested in the US on suspicion of being a spy is alleged to have travelled on a forged Irish passport.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it is studying US statements about the arrest of 10 alleged Russian spies.

The FBI arrested 10 people for allegedly serving for years as secret agents of Russia’s intelligence service, the SVR, with the goal of penetrating US government policymaking circles.

A senior Kremlin spokesman dismissed allegations that Russia’s government was involved in the alleged poisoning of former security officer Alexander Litvinenko as “sheer nonsense.”