US indicts Russian spy who tried to infiltrate ICC

Via Le Figaro with AFP

Posted 03/24/2023 at 23:46

A Russian national tried to infiltrate International Criminal Court Last summer, he was indicted on Friday March 24 for espionage in the United States, where he is accused of living under a false identity for two years.

Sergey Cherkasov, 37 years old,Brazilian Victor Mueller served as an illegal Russian intelligence agent under Ferreira“, according to a statement from a federal prosecutor in Washington.

A chameleon agent

According to the indictment, he began operating under this identity in Brazil in 2010 and “PuranaWith an imaginary aunt, dead mother and rare friends. Five years later, he filed an application for registration under this name at a university located in Washington. After being accepted into this institution, he entered the US in 2018 on a student visa.

Until 2020, he lived under this cover, studying international relations while collecting “Information about Americans he sent to Russian services“, refer to the services of attorney Matthew Graves.

“Read more – War in Ukraine: Poland says it dismantled Russian spy network

After leaving the US in May 2020, he continued to use his university connections to gain information on US foreign policy. In April 2022, he sought to enter the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, as a practitioner, and is investigating war crimes charges in Ukraine targeting Russia.

The Dutch secret services unmasked him and refused him entry to Dutch soil. He was extradited to Brazil, where he was arrested for fraud and sentenced to 15 years in prison in July. According to court documents, Moscow has sought his extradition on drug-trafficking charges dating back to 2011 and 2013.