By Le Figaro with AFP
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A Russian national, who had attempted to infiltrate the International Penal Court last summer, was indicted on Friday March 24 for espionage in the United States, where he is accused of having lived under a false identity for two years.
Sergei Cherkassov, 37 years old,worked as an illegal Russian intelligence agent under the Brazilian alias Victor Muller Ferreira“, According to a statement from the federal prosecutor in Washington.
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A chameleon agent
According to the indictment, he began operating under this identity in Brazil in 2010 and built a “legendwith a fictional aunt, a deceased mother and rare friends. Five years later, he had filed an application for registration in this name with a university located in Washington. After being accepted at this institution, he entered the United States in 2018 on a student visa.
Until 2020, he lived under this cover, studying international relations, while collecting “information on Americans that he passed on to Russian services“, specify the services of the prosecutor Matthew Graves.
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After leaving the United States in May 2020, he continued to use his university contacts to obtain information on American foreign policy, they add. In April 2022, he had attempted to enter as an intern at the International Criminal Court (ICC), which sits in The Hague, the Netherlands, and is investigating war crimes charges in Ukraine targeting Russia.
The Dutch secret services had unmasked him and refused him entry to Dutch soil. Sent back to Brazil, he was arrested there for fraud and sentenced in July to 15 years in prison. According to court documents, Moscow has sought his extradition, accusing him of drug trafficking dating back to 2011 and 2013.
