On March 31, 2022, Victor Muller Ferreira boarded a flight from São Paulo International Airport, Brazil, bound for the Netherlands. His journey to Europe was ostensibly to begin an internship at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
However, these plans were abruptly derailed the moment his plane touched down. Authorities quickly discovered that he was not the Brazilian citizen he claimed to be.
The Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) identified him as Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, a 36-year-old Russian national. He was subsequently accused of being an operative for the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency.
Cherkasov was promptly deported back to Brazil on the next available flight and arrested upon arrival. He is currently serving a five-year prison sentence in Brazil for using forged documents.
Brazilian investigators and prosecutors revealed that Cherkasov arrived in Brazil in 2010. His fabricated Brazilian identity was a carefully constructed ruse designed to deceive foreign intelligence agencies, enabling him to operate in other countries without attracting undue attention.
Both the Brazilian Federal Police and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) independently identified him as a Russian intelligence agent. According to the FBI, his false identity served as a crucial cover, allowing him greater freedom to gather information within the United States.
While Cherkasov has admitted to being a Russian citizen, he vehemently denies the espionage charges.
Following diplomatic efforts and an extradition request from Moscow, it now appears that Cherkasov will soon be returned to his country of birth.
But who exactly is Cherkasov, and what do his operations reveal about the methods of modern Russian spies?
Who is Cherkasov and why did he target the International Criminal Court?
The U.S. Department of Justice unveiled Cherkasov’s true identity in an indictment that referenced incriminating files found during his arrest.
When apprehended in Brazil in 2022, Cherkasov’s data storage devices contained a trove of documents, including an elaborate background story meticulously crafted to convince anyone that he was a genuine Brazilian citizen.
This meticulously fabricated life story was believed to have been authored by Cherkasov around 2010.
“I am Victor Muller Ferreira,” the opening line of the intricate narrative read.
Across four detailed pages, Cherkasov spun a compelling tale of his family history.
He wrote, for instance, “My mother collected butterflies, but the collection had to be sold to finance medical care.”
His school years were equally dramatized: “I don’t like to remember those years, as classmates often mocked my appearance and accent. Although I look German, they called me ‘gringo.’ That’s why I didn’t have many friends.”
Another poignant passage stated: “My father seemed a friendly and open person, but I keep blaming him for the death of my mother and aunt, and for all the difficulties and humiliations I had to endure in my life.”
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Cherkasov moved to Washington, D.C. in 2018 under the guise of pursuing a postgraduate program.
He had reportedly applied for an internship at the International Criminal Court (ICC) as early as September 2020, though the application process may have been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Dutch Intelligence Agency stated that Cherkasov aimed to secure an unpaid internship at the ICC in The Hague, a location that has long been a primary intelligence target for Russia.
Weeks before Cherkasov’s arrest, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Since then, the ICC has been actively investigating numerous allegations of war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine.
In 2023, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin, focusing on accusations of the unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia.
Russia has vehemently denied these accusations, dismissing the warrant as “absurd.”
“Covert access to ICC information would be extremely valuable to Russian intelligence services,” the AIVD declared, underscoring the strategic importance of Cherkasov’s potential infiltration.
Had Cherkasov succeeded in penetrating the court, experts warn that he could have manipulated or even destroyed crucial evidence, severely compromising ongoing investigations.
Emily Ferris, a senior research fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the Royal United Services Institute, notes that Russian targets vary based on current news cycles. “Currently, key targets are the financial body Euroclear and Belgium, because that’s what’s topical and most pressing,” Ferris commented, referring to EU discussions regarding the use of frozen Russian assets, a significant portion of which are held by Brussels-based Euroclear.
How do covert agents operate today?
Russia has a long-standing tradition of deploying covert agents who assume entirely new identities and nationalities, allowing them to infiltrate various circles without suspicion. Training such agents is an arduous process, often taking up to a decade to establish a credible cover and ensure they are fully integrated into their target foreign country.
These deep-cover agents live outside Russia on long-term assignments under false pretenses. They are commonly known as “illegals,” a term that appears in the U.S. Department of Justice’s indictment against Cherkasov.
According to the indictment, “illegals sometimes pursue degrees at target country universities, or obtain jobs, or engage in activities that reinforce the illegal agent’s legend.” In Cherkasov’s case, this involved pursuing education in Washington.
The detailed notes on his fabricated life discovered by investigators offer significant clues into the modus operandi of Russian deep-cover agents.
The term “illegal” differentiates these agents from those who typically operate from embassies or under diplomatic immunity, explains Emily Ferris. “The illegal program is a remnant of the Soviet period,” she states, citing a network of Russian deep-cover agents who operated in the U.S. for over a decade, ultimately exposed by an FBI investigation in 2010. These agents were, as Ferris puts it, “essentially American in every respect.”
“Russia has put a huge amount of effort and tried to plant them in various places. It’s interesting that they’re still allocating resources to this, given the intensive training that takes time and money,” Ferris observes.
However, since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, its international intelligence gathering operations have faced significant disruptions. Russian ambassadors have been deported from posts worldwide, and numerous Russian spy networks have been exposed across Europe, North America, and Latin America due to tightened Western intelligence cooperation.
“These events have disrupted many spy networks operating in embassies across Europe,” Ferris notes.
“Russian intelligence networks are undergoing reform, but clearly the war is ongoing, and most of their resources are currently prioritized on the front lines, so their ability to continue these kinds of programs is quite limited,” Ferris adds.
Cherkasov, exposed with a Brazilian identity, is just one example. At least nine suspected agents posing as Brazilians have been identified since 2022, operating in Norway and other countries.
Despite leveraging Brazilian identities, none have been accused of spying against Brazil itself. The country is often used as a convenient cover due to its lax document controls and its neutrality in international conflicts, making it an ideal base for such operations.
Russia is now increasingly relying on a different class of agents. “Without embassy-linked networks, they are using third-party intermediaries or local residents,” Ferris explains.
“Russia has been targeting railway systems and disrupting supply chains into Ukraine, or blowing up warehouses, also using local citizens often recruited through social media.”
“These are local people motivated by greed or lack of purpose, so there’s no ideology there. Often they don’t even know that Russia is their main sponsor.”
What happens to exposed spies?
Cherkasov now appears poised for an imminent return to Russia. In August 2022, Russia filed an extradition request for him, controversially claiming he was a wanted drug trafficker.
The Brazilian Federal Supreme Court approved this request. More recently, the Federal Court of Sao Paulo and the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Rio de Janeiro reported that all legal requirements for Cherkasov’s extradition have been met, confirming there are no longer any “impediments” to his transfer to Russia.
The final decision still awaits approval from the president or the minister of justice.
In 2023, the U.S. also filed an extradition request, based on allegations that Cherkasov acted as an unregistered foreign agent on U.S. soil and committed financial and visa fraud. However, Brazilian authorities denied this request, citing Russia’s earlier submission.
BBC News Brasil reached out to the Russian and U.S. embassies in Brazil, as well as Cherkasov’s defense team in Brazil, for comment but received no response.
Should Cherkasov be returned to Russia, Ferris believes he will be well-received. She points to the case of Anna Chapman, one of the Russian deep-cover agents arrested in the U.S., who became a celebrity upon her return to Russia in 2012.
Ferris also cited Andrey Lugovoy, a prime suspect in the 2006 poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, who was elected to Russia’s State Duma (parliament) in 2007.
“If you’re willing to risk your life and freedom in this way, there must be recognition from the Kremlin for your sacrifice,” Ferris states. “It would be something of a hero’s welcome, I imagine,” she concludes.
Additional reporting: Fiona Macdonald
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Summary
Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, a Russian GRU