By Le Figaro with AFP
Published on 03/24/2023 at 23:46
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Sergey Cherkassov, 37, tried to infiltrate the International Criminal Court. Anna /stock.adobe.com
A Russian national who tried to infiltrate the International Criminal Court last summer was charged with espionage on Friday, March 24, in the United States, where he is accused of living under a false identity for two years.
Sergei Cherkasov, 37, “worked as an illegal agent for the Russian secret services under the Brazilian pseudonym Victor Muller Ferreira,” according to a press release from the federal prosecutor’s office in Washington.
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A chameleon agent
According to the indictment, he operated under this identity in Brazil in 2010 and built a “legend” for himself with a fictional aunt, a deceased mother and rare friends. Five years later he had applied for registration at a Washington university under that name. After being accepted at this institution, he entered the United States in 2018 on a student visa.
Until 2020, he lived under this guise, conducting studies on international relations and collecting “information about Americans, which he transmitted to the Russian services,” according to the services of prosecutor Matthew Graves.
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After leaving the United States in May 2020, he continued to use his university contacts to learn about American foreign policy, it said. In April 2022, he had attempted to work as an intern at the International Criminal Court (ICC), which sits in The Hague, Netherlands and investigates Ukraine war crimes charges against Russia.
The Dutch secret services had exposed him and denied him access to Dutch soil. He was sent back to Brazil, arrested there for fraud and sentenced to 15 years in prison in July. According to court documents, Moscow has requested his extradition, charging him with drug trafficking dating back to 2011 and 2013.