Alex Gottschalk/DeFodi Images vi Getty ImagesA Russian intelligence agent who had maintained a false identity for years attempted to infiltrate the International Criminal Court, only to be stopped by Dutch intelligence (illustrative photo taken outside ICC headquarters in March 2022).
INTERNATIONAL – It’s a story that could have been invented by Ian Flemming, creator of the James Bond character. Dutch intelligence services announced on Thursday June 16 that they had blocked a Russian spy from gaining entry as an intern at the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is based in the Netherlands and investigates war crimes in Ukraine.
Had he not been exposed in time, the man could have gained access to the court building and computers to gather information and identify sources on behalf of the Russian Military Intelligence Service (GRU), for which he works. In short, he may have “influenced the criminal proceedings of the International Criminal Court,” which investigates crimes committed in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion, but also the Russian war in Georgia in 2008, the Dutch Intelligence Service (AIVD) said.
The person was identified as 36-year-old Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov. The Dutch secret service said he posed as a 33-year-old Brazilian under the name Viktor Muller Ferreira in order to gain access to the ICC.
A GRU spy trying to gain access to the International Criminal Court as an intern left a long and detailed trail on social media.https://t.co/1mqy5zZhPj
— Bellingcat (@bellingcat) June 16, 2022
He was arrested at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport from Brazil in April and was due to start his internship at the ICC after his admission, Dutch news agency ANP reported. He was sent back to Brazil on the first plane, the AIVD said, before being arrested by Brazilian police.
It’s rare to challenge a spy of “this caliber”.
The spy poses a “potentially very high threat” because having one in the ICC could have been “of great value to the Russian secret services,” emphasized the Dutch secret service.
It is rare that a secret agent “of this caliber” is arrested, said Erik Akerboom, director general of the AIVD, quoted by the ANP. “The GRU has invested years to hide its true identity. It’s a huge effort,” added Erik Akerboom, specifying that the spy’s exposure in April had only now been uncovered so as not to damage the investigation.
The Russian spy had spent several years painstakingly constructing an identity by inventing a life down to the minutest details, the AIVD revealed in a document describing his tastes and life course, written by himself in Portuguese. He reportedly had a troubled relationship with his parents, an aversion to fish, a crush on a teacher, and was nicknamed “Gringo” because he “looked like a German”.
Brazil’s federal police said in a statement on Thursday that in April they arrested a man – whose name they did not name – who was refused entry to the Netherlands for using a false identity document. “Using an elaborate system of forgery, he posed as a Brazilian whose parents are deceased,” police said in a statement, adding that he remains in custody awaiting trial.
Threats taken “very seriously” by the ICC
The Russian spy arrived in Brazil in 2010 and lived in Ireland and the United States before returning to Brazil to prepare for his move to the Netherlands. According to the Brazilian police, he should start a “six-month probationary period before the International Criminal Court as a junior analyst in the preliminary investigation department”.
The ICC said it was very grateful to the Dutch authorities for this “important operation and more generally for uncovering security threats,” said Sonia Robla, spokeswoman for the court, which has been investigating the crimes of alleged wars in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion on April 24 . February. “The ICC takes these threats very seriously,” she added.
This is not the first time the Netherlands has uncovered Russian intelligence operations on its soil, particularly in The Hague, where several courts and international organizations are based. In 2018, Dutch authorities expelled four suspected Russian GRU spies they accused of attempting to hack into the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which was investigating attacks in Syria.
See also on the HuffPost: BLOG – Why Bashar al-Assad will never be charged before the International Criminal Court