Authorities from the Dutch intelligence service on Thursday said that a Russian spy attempted to use a false identity to infiltrate the International Criminal Court (ICC) as an intern.
The situation comes as the ICC is investigating accusations of war crimes in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Officials identified the Russian military agent as Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov and claims he created an elaborate cover story dating back years to try and enter the Netherlands as a Brazilian national for an internship at the Hague-based ICC in April.
Russian Spy
The chief of the Dutch intelligence agency, Erik Akerboom, said that the plan was a long-term, multi-year GRU operation that cost a lot of time, energy, and money. The acronym that the official used was a reference to Russia's military intelligence service.
Despite the incident, no GRU representative could be immediately reached for comment regarding the alleged spy. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin's government has, in the past, frequently denied spying accusations as a Western smear campaign against Moscow, as per Yahoo News.
In a statement, the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) said that the man, who went by the alias Viktor Muller Ferreira, was picked up at a Dutch airport. The suspect was declared an undesirable alien and put on the next flight back to Brazil.
On the other hand, Brazil's federal police said that Cherkasov was taken into custody and is being prosecuted for the use of false documents. Akerboom added that the situation clearly shows what the Russians were trying to do to gain illegal access to the information within the ICC, saying that the incident was classified as a high-level threat.
According to CNN, the 33-year-old has already been detained in Brazil where he is "subject to criminal action for fifteen uses of false documents and remains in custody awaiting the sentence of the first degree." Brazilian police said that the suspect used a sophisticated falsification system and they assumed that he forged the identity of a Brazilian man whose parents were deceased.
Infiltrating the ICC
On Thursday, AIVD also released a four-page cover story that said the alleged spy had probably written himself. The documents include facts about his supposed family and life, including a crush on a fictional geography teacher.
The document claims that his mother collected butterflies, and he worked at a garage that smelled of "lubricant and vulcanized rubber." It also goes so far as to specify that a poster of Veronica Castro, and later Pamela Anderson, hung on the door of the garage's supply cabinet.
The elaborate fictional biography explains how he ended up in Brasilia, which is after meeting his estranged father in Rio, he says he decided to move to the region to learn Portuguese, and even offers the address of a trap music club that his persona frequented. Notably, the document excludes any mention of his current employment.
The situation comes as Russia is being accused of war crimes for its continued attack on Ukrainian cities, resulting in the death of civilians. Amnesty International on Monday said that Russia's relentless shelling of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv with cluster munitions and scatterable landmines amounts to a war crime, Reuters reported.
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