New York:
There are thousands of Russian secret agents currently living in the United States, claims a former double agent who worked for the CIA.
"I would say there are a few thousand here," said Boris Korczak, a former double agent who was spying on the KGB from 1973-1980.
"Out of 1,000 spies, one or two will perform, will get access to our nuclear secrets," he was quoted as saying by the New York Post.
Last week, 10 people were accused of being Russian spies, which sparked memories of the decade long cold war between the US and Soviet Union.
"The current atmosphere in the US is that we're having a love affair with Russia, that the Cold War is over," said Eugene Poteat, a retired senior CIA operative who served from 1960-1990.
"But there are more Russian spies here now than during the Cold War," Poteat added.
Out of 10 accused, one young woman Anna Chapman (real name: Anya Kuschenko) has got a lot of television attention by the press for being something out of a movie plot.
The 28-year-old with fiery red hair, which she dyed every week, spent a great deal of time cracking the circles of the political and business elite in New York City.
In photographs broadcast on American television, Chapman is seen in designer clothes and reportedly hit the elite bars of Manhattan.
The Post report suggests that the SVR, which is the successor of the KGB, trains young women in the art of seduction and Chapman may have been the product of such training.
During the Cold War, "the Soviet Union had a number of schools that trained beautiful women how to lure and satisfy powerful and rich American men sexually and intellectually," said Korczak.
"They're called 'worm-on-a-hook' agents." Chapman, who is being held in a federal prison is reportedly scared of being deported and has contacted her father Vasily Kuschenko who is suspected of being a former KGB agent himself.
"She spoke to her father, and her father said, 'Go turn the passport in,'" Richard Baum, her lawyer said.
"Her father said, 'You've got this passport. It's forged. Go turn it into the police,' and that's exactly what she did."