A Russian citizen, who tried to infiltrate the International Criminal Court last summer, was charged this Friday with espionage in the United States, where he is accused of having lived under a false identity for two years.
Sergei Tcherkassov, 37, “worked as an illegal agent for the Russian intelligence services under the Brazilian alias Victor Muller Ferreira,” according to a news release from the federal prosecutor’s office in Washington.
Under false identity since 2010
According to the indictment, he began operating under this identity in Brazil in 2010 and built a “legend” for himself with a fictitious aunt, deceased mother and weird friends.
Five years later, he had filed a registration application in this name at a university located in Washington. After being accepted at this institution, he entered the United States in 2018 with a student visa.
Until 2020 he lived under this cover, conducting international relations studies, while collecting “information about Americans that he transmitted to Russian services,” specifies the services of prosecutor Matthew Graves.
After leaving the United States in May 2020, he continued to use his university contacts to obtain information on American foreign policy, they add.
attempted trespass
In April 2022, he had tried to enter as an intern at the International Criminal Court (ICC), based in The Hague, the Netherlands, which is investigating war crimes charges in Ukraine against Russia.
The Dutch secret services had exposed him and denied 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 requested his extradition, accusing him of drug trafficking from 2011 and 2013.
Source: BFM TV
