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Authorities in the Netherlands said Thursday they had denied access to a Russian spy posing as a Brazilian citizen to break into the International Criminal Court – where authorities speculate that he is seeking access to information related to ICC investigations into alleged Russian war crimes.
The alleged spy “was sent back to Brazil on the first flight”, authorities said of the events that took place in April.
The General Intelligence and Security Service, the Dutch counterintelligence agency known by its Dutch acronym AIVD, released details of the plot in an emergency news release reminiscent of a spy novel rather than a government statement.
The AIVD said a 33-year-old man claiming to be a Brazilian citizen named Victor Mueller Ferreira had flown to the Netherlands from Brazil to begin an internship at The International Criminal Court in The Hague. at 36 years old. -year-old Russian intelligence officer, according to the agency.
Cherkasov may have left a long mark of fraud. Social media accounts suggest he also spent some time in Washington and Dublin studying at the best universities, John Hopkins and Trinity College Dublin.
Cherkasov, posing as Mueller Ferreira, “uses a well-established identity as a cover to cover up all his ties with Russia as a whole and the GRU. [Russia’s intelligence directorate] in particular, according to the AIVD, which distributed copies of a document detailing the intricate identity of the man’s cover-up.
This four-page document, apparently written by the spy himself in an attempt to remember the details of his cover story, included long descriptions of complex transnational family history and secular details of rents in various cities, falling in love with teachers and a favorite trance music nightclub in Brazil. .
The original document, probably written in mid-2010, was in Portuguese and included remarkable grammatical errors. It was edited by the Dutch authorities to remove the identifying information of people who were not involved in Cherkasov’s intelligence activities.
“It was a long-term, long-term GRU operation that cost a lot of time, energy and money,” Dutch intelligence chief Eric Ackerbum told Reuters.
Cherkasov’s delusion also seems to have caught at least one leading American academic institution. An introductory program for 2020 from Johns Hopkins University lists “Victor Mueller Ferreira” among its graduates. He was awarded a Master of Arts from the School of Advanced International Studies.
Eugene Finkel, an associate professor of international affairs at the university and an expert on genocide, wrote on Twitter on Thursday that he had taught the man he thought was Mueller Ferreira. He even wrote him a letter of recommendation for his internship at the ICC.
“Given my focus on research, it made sense. I wrote him a letter. Strong, actually. Yes me. I wrote a reference letter for a GRU officer. I will never overcome this fact, “Finkel wrote.
Dutch authorities have informed the court about the operation, spokeswoman Sonia Robla said in an e-mail statement.
“The ICC takes these threats very seriously and will continue to work and cooperate with the Netherlands,” Robla said.
Cherkasov had to start an internship at the International Criminal Court, where Dutch intelligence said he may have wanted access to information on ongoing investigations into allegations of Russian war crimes committed in Ukraine and Georgia in 2008.
“If the intelligence officer had been able to gain access to the ICC as an intern, he would have been able to gather intelligence there and seek (or gather) sources and organize access to the ICC’s digital systems,” the AIVD said. .
For this reason, he was “considered a potentially very high” risk to the security of the Netherlands and was sent back to Brazil at the earliest opportunity, the statement said.
The AIVD said it was working with the Dutch military intelligence or the MIVD and other partners to “reduce any possible damage to national security and the security and integrity of international organizations”. The agency said it had notified the Dutch immigration authorities as well as the International Criminal Court.
Russia has a rich history with the court. Moscow signed the 1998 Rome Statute, which established the ICC but never ratified it. The ICC also launched an investigation into Russia’s 2008 invasion of South Ossetia in Georgia and later declared Russia an occupying force in Crimea after the 2014 invasion, prompting Moscow to withdraw its signature in protest.
Just days after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th, ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan announced that he would launch an investigation into possible crimes against humanity and war crimes in Ukraine.
Timsit reports from London and Taylor from Washington.
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