A Russian citizen who tried to penetrate the International Criminal Court last summer in the United States was charged with espionage, as it is believed that he resided under a false identity for two years.

A statement issued by the Federal Attorney General in Washington stated that Sergey Cherkasov (37 years) "was an agent of the Russian intelligence services with a Brazilian identity under the name of Victor Mueller Ferreira."

He began working under this name in Brazil in 2010, creating an identity for himself that talks about imaginary relatives and friends.

Five years later, he submitted an application under that name to enroll in a university located in Washington, and after being accepted, he entered the United States in 2018 on a student visa.

He lived under this identity until 2020, and during this period he conducted studies in international relations, while he was collecting "information about Americans and sending it to the Russian services," as indicated by the Attorney General's office, Matthew Graves.

After he left the United States in May 2020, he continued to communicate with his acquaintances to obtain information about American foreign policy.

In April 2022, he attempted to infiltrate the International Criminal Court under the guise of conducting training at the Netherlands-based institution currently investigating possible war crimes in Ukraine.

Dutch intelligence discovered him and prevented him from entering the Netherlands, and he was returned to Brazil, where he was arrested on charges of fraud and sentenced in July to 15 years in prison.

Court documents indicated that Moscow had requested his extradition, accusing him of drug trafficking in 2011 and 2013.