NOS News•
The Russian secret agent who was refused entry to the Netherlands last year is being charged by the US with espionage and fraud. The 37-year-old Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov studied in the US for several years under his Brazilian pseudonym Viktor Muller Ferreira.
The AIVD was tipped off by a foreign intelligence service that Cherkasov wanted to do an internship at the International Criminal Court in The Hague under his false name. According to a spokesperson, he could have had access to sensitive international lawsuits, such as the investigation into Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
Before Cherkasov could start work last April, he was declared an undesirable alien and put on a plane to Brazil, the country where he lived. Cherkasov had worked for years there and in the US on a cover as a Putin-critical International Relations student. According to the AIVD, he denied his Russian identity in order to access information that is kept out of the reach of Russians.
Spied in the US
In Brazil Cherkasov was arrested because of his years of fraud with personal data. The US now wants to prosecute him for similar offenses. While attending Johns Hopkins University, he obtained a driver’s license under his assumed name and opened a bank account.
The Washington prosecutor also says that Cherkasov passed information about Americans to his contacts in the Russian intelligence services in the US. Details about this have not been disclosed. At the time, Cherkasov said he lived in a suburb of Washington, near the Pentagon.
“These types of adversaries are secretly trying to undermine our national security,” the prosecutor writes in a press release. “Together with the FBI, we will deal with anyone who wants to harm the US and bring them to justice.”
It is not yet clear whether the US has already requested Brazil’s extradition. Shortly after his arrest, Russia also requested his extradition, because Cherkasov would be prosecuted there for drug offences.
