Accused Russian spy allegedly collected U.S. information on Ukraine battle earlier than arrest

Washington — A suspected Russian intelligence officer who was arrested final yr after allegedly attempting to infiltrate the Worldwide Felony Court docket was within the U.S. gathering data on U.S. overseas coverage earlier than his cowl was blown, in keeping with court docket paperwork filed Friday. 

Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, who lived beneath the alias Victor Muller Ferreira, was charged within the U.S. District Court docket for the District of Columbia, for performing as an unlawful agent of a Russian intelligence service whereas he attended graduate college for 2 years in Washington. He additionally faces a number of fraud fees. 

Cherkasov has been imprisoned in Brazil for fraud since his arrest final April. Russia has been attempting to extradite him, claiming that he’s needed in Russia for narcotics trafficking. The FBI suspects Russia is utilizing the narcotics fees as cowl to convey its spy dwelling. 

Turning into Brazilian

The legal grievance filed Friday reveals extra particulars about Cherkasov’s life undercover, from his time spent making a false id in Brazil greater than a decade in the past to making use of for jobs within the U.S., together with some that required a safety clearance. 

In 2010, years earlier than his arrest, Cherkasov assumed his new id in Brazil after acquiring a fraudulent beginning certificates, in keeping with court docket paperwork. From there, he created a fictitious childhood. 

His supposed late mom was a Brazilian nationwide and he spent numerous time along with his aunt, who spoke Portuguese poorly and preferred displaying him outdated household pictures, in keeping with a doc that contained particulars of his cowl that have been discovered with him when he was arrested in Brazil. He attributed his distaste for fish — one thing peculiar for somebody from Brazil — to not with the ability to stand the odor of it as a result of he grew up close to the port. 

After years of residing along with his new id, Cherkasov was accepted to graduate college in Washington and obtained a U.S. visa. Court docket paperwork don’t identify the varsity, however CNN has reported he attended Johns Hopkins’ College of Superior Worldwide Research. 

“There isn’t a higher and extra prestigious place for us to be,” he allegedly wrote to his handlers. “Now we’re within the big-boys league.”

The invasion of Ukraine

Close to the top of 2021, Cherkasov was allegedly sending messages about U.S. coverage on Russia’s potential invasion of Ukraine to his handlers. 

“I used to be aiming to seek out out what are their recommendation to the administration,” he wrote in a single message after speaking along with his contacts at two suppose tanks. 

The messages to the handlers included particulars on his conversations with specialists and knowledge he had gleaned from on-line boards or experiences about Russia’s army buildup close to Ukraine’s border and NATO, court docket paperwork mentioned. 

Cherkasov’s subsequent cease was an internship with the Worldwide Felony Court docket in The Hague. 

“The ICC was of specific curiosity to Russia in March 2022, after it obtained quite a few public referrals concerning human rights violations dedicated by Russia and its brokers throughout its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022,” the legal grievance says. 

However Cherkasov was refused entry as he arrived to begin the internship. He was arrested days later in Brazil for fraud. 

The legal grievance doesn’t say what tipped off Dutch intelligence to Cherkasov’s alleged espionage. But it surely does say FBI particular brokers met in particular person with Cherkasov in 2022, although it doesn’t element beneath what circumstances. 

After his arrest, Brazilian authorities gave the FBI covert communications gear recovered from distant areas in Brazil that Cherkasov had allegedly hidden earlier than his departure to The Hague.