Read from CNN:
The man now alleged to be a Russian spy was studying at the prestigious Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies, an elite graduate program favored by US military personnel, young diplomats and, sources say, future spies.
Gregarious, smart, and often seen toting a helmet for his beloved motorcycle, "Muller" was known, and even liked, by his fellow students and the faculty at SAIS. But his muddled accent caught the ear of a few classmates. On one occasion, a fellow student asked him outright: Are you Russian?
The spy brushed off the question. He was from Brazil, he said in what turned out to be part of the elaborate cover identity he spent years building.
"Looking back, it was a red flag," the former classmate told CNN, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "I remember thinking at the time it didn't really make sense."
"Muller" graduated from SAIS in 2020. Last week, a Dutch intelligence agency publicly identified him as Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, a Russian military intelligence officer who in April traveled to the Netherlands to start an internship at the International Criminal Court (ICC). From there, he would have had a perch to spy on war crimes investigations into Russian military actions in Ukraine and elsewhere, sources say.
Dutch officials stopped him at the border and sent him back to Brazil, where he had been living under the forged identity of a Brazilian man whose parents are deceased, according to Brazilian police.
It was not immediately clear when the US became aware of Cherkasov's true identity. The FBI has an active investigation open, according to one source familiar with the intelligence. US and Dutch intelligence agencies shared information about Cherkasov some time ago, according to a separate US official, though it's not clear when that occurred. Yet another US official wouldn't address how the Russian intelligence connection came to light, adding that the FBI worked closely with the Dutch authorities on tracking his activities.
The revelation of Cherkasov's true identity has roiled faculty at SAIS. But to former intelligence officials, Cherkasov fits a well-known pattern: Russia, among other foreign powers, seeks to place young intelligence operatives in American academic institutions to help build their deep cover identities.
Often, the mission of so-called "illegals" -- a spy operating under an identity not linked to the Russian government in any way -- is to do little more than simply establish legitimacy as a student, said John McLaughlin, a former deputy director of the CIA who now teaches at SAIS.
"It's not unusual," McLaughlin said. "My sense is that passing through SAIS was a kind of laundering experience for him. These Russian illegals tend to go through a long process of credentialing themselves in order to establish credibility as who they claim to be."
Why the Kremlin would want to plant a spy in the International Criminal Court is clear, former intelligence officials say: It would offer Russia a crucial window into the investigation into alleged Russian war crimes -- in Georgia in 2008 and in Ukraine in 2022.
"For those reasons, covert access to International Criminal Court information would be highly valuable to the Russian intelligence services," Dutch intelligence said in its statement.
Effectively planting a spy is increasingly difficult for intelligence services across the globe, thanks to ubiquitous surveillance technology and the degree to which most people live their entire lives online in 2022. An online profile that only popped up a few years ago, or a profile that suddenly goes inactive, can be a tip-off for counterintelligence officers trying to spot spies.
The problem is equally difficult for American spies operating abroad under "nonofficial cover," a so-called NOC.
"Any sort of durable long-term illegal is not a dying breed but far more difficult to do now than it once was," said one former US counterintelligence official. "And that's true for everybody."
The US arrested and deported 10 Russian operatives as part of a spy swap with Moscow in 2010, one of whom had graduated from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government 10 years before and had been living in Cambridge with his wife and two children. Harvard subsequently stripped Andrey Bezrukov -- who went by the name Donald Heathfield -- of his degree. His wife, Elena Vavilova, graduated from McGill University and was deported as part of the same swap.
Cherkasov had similarly sought to quietly build an alternate identity over the course of years. The Dutch intelligence agency published a crude "legend" that it says was probably written by Cherkasov in mid-2010, laying out his false history as a Brazilian man born in Rio de Janeiro in 1989. He details this fake family history through multiple generations, offering a myriad of small personal idiosyncrasies: a hatred for fish, a beloved aunt, a crush on a geography teacher.
In 2014, Cherkasov began attending college at Trinity College Dublin, studying political science and graduating in 2018. The same year, he traveled to the United States to obtain his master's degree at SAIS.
The man now alleged to be a Russian spy was studying at the prestigious Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies, an elite graduate program favored by US military personnel, young diplomats and, sources say, future spies.
Gregarious, smart, and often seen toting a helmet for his beloved motorcycle, "Muller" was known, and even liked, by his fellow students and the faculty at SAIS. But his muddled accent caught the ear of a few classmates. On one occasion, a fellow student asked him outright: Are you Russian?
The spy brushed off the question. He was from Brazil, he said in what turned out to be part of the elaborate cover identity he spent years building.
"Looking back, it was a red flag," the former classmate told CNN, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "I remember thinking at the time it didn't really make sense."
"Muller" graduated from SAIS in 2020. Last week, a Dutch intelligence agency publicly identified him as Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, a Russian military intelligence officer who in April traveled to the Netherlands to start an internship at the International Criminal Court (ICC). From there, he would have had a perch to spy on war crimes investigations into Russian military actions in Ukraine and elsewhere, sources say.
Dutch officials stopped him at the border and sent him back to Brazil, where he had been living under the forged identity of a Brazilian man whose parents are deceased, according to Brazilian police.
It was not immediately clear when the US became aware of Cherkasov's true identity. The FBI has an active investigation open, according to one source familiar with the intelligence. US and Dutch intelligence agencies shared information about Cherkasov some time ago, according to a separate US official, though it's not clear when that occurred. Yet another US official wouldn't address how the Russian intelligence connection came to light, adding that the FBI worked closely with the Dutch authorities on tracking his activities.
The revelation of Cherkasov's true identity has roiled faculty at SAIS. But to former intelligence officials, Cherkasov fits a well-known pattern: Russia, among other foreign powers, seeks to place young intelligence operatives in American academic institutions to help build their deep cover identities.
Often, the mission of so-called "illegals" -- a spy operating under an identity not linked to the Russian government in any way -- is to do little more than simply establish legitimacy as a student, said John McLaughlin, a former deputy director of the CIA who now teaches at SAIS.
"It's not unusual," McLaughlin said. "My sense is that passing through SAIS was a kind of laundering experience for him. These Russian illegals tend to go through a long process of credentialing themselves in order to establish credibility as who they claim to be."
Why the Kremlin would want to plant a spy in the International Criminal Court is clear, former intelligence officials say: It would offer Russia a crucial window into the investigation into alleged Russian war crimes -- in Georgia in 2008 and in Ukraine in 2022.
"For those reasons, covert access to International Criminal Court information would be highly valuable to the Russian intelligence services," Dutch intelligence said in its statement.
Effectively planting a spy is increasingly difficult for intelligence services across the globe, thanks to ubiquitous surveillance technology and the degree to which most people live their entire lives online in 2022. An online profile that only popped up a few years ago, or a profile that suddenly goes inactive, can be a tip-off for counterintelligence officers trying to spot spies.
The problem is equally difficult for American spies operating abroad under "nonofficial cover," a so-called NOC.
"Any sort of durable long-term illegal is not a dying breed but far more difficult to do now than it once was," said one former US counterintelligence official. "And that's true for everybody."
The US arrested and deported 10 Russian operatives as part of a spy swap with Moscow in 2010, one of whom had graduated from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government 10 years before and had been living in Cambridge with his wife and two children. Harvard subsequently stripped Andrey Bezrukov -- who went by the name Donald Heathfield -- of his degree. His wife, Elena Vavilova, graduated from McGill University and was deported as part of the same swap.
Cherkasov had similarly sought to quietly build an alternate identity over the course of years. The Dutch intelligence agency published a crude "legend" that it says was probably written by Cherkasov in mid-2010, laying out his false history as a Brazilian man born in Rio de Janeiro in 1989. He details this fake family history through multiple generations, offering a myriad of small personal idiosyncrasies: a hatred for fish, a beloved aunt, a crush on a geography teacher.
In 2014, Cherkasov began attending college at Trinity College Dublin, studying political science and graduating in 2018. The same year, he traveled to the United States to obtain his master's degree at SAIS.
