A Russian spy impersonated a Brazilian student to enter the United States and attend the Johns Hopkins University graduate program in international relations, according to a federal indictment.
GRU agent Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, 37, disguised himself as a South American student named Victor Ferreira and even applied for a job at the International Criminal Court, in order to place himself within the US security establishment.
The Justice Department alleges that Cherkasov entered the United States in 2018 hoping to collect information on Americans and established contacts with a State Department employee, a Capitol Hill employee, and other security officials.
Cherkasov allegedly created the alias “Ferreira” while in Brazil where he posed as the son of a deceased Brazilian citizen.
In the year 2022, a Russian spy attempts to reach the International Criminal Court in The Hague, to obtain information about the investigation into the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
According to court documents, GRU worker Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, 37, disguised himself as a South American student named Victor Ferreira and even applied for a job at the ICC.
In the year 2022, a Russian spy attempts to reach the International Criminal Court in The Hague, to obtain information about the investigation into the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
After Cherkasov entered Johns Hopkins’ prestigious international relations program in 2018, he emailed several of the people who helped him get in.
“We created the future today – we were able to get into one of the best schools in the world,” he wrote in the email, which was cited by the Department of Justice on Friday.
This is a victory that belongs to all of us – to the whole team. Today we drink to the king !!! Russian agent wrote at the time.
The “team” he was thanking at the time included top Russian wizards who put him in his place to go undercover in grad school.
And in another email after getting his visa to the US, he exclaims that the team “won.”
“Man, I get it! Me f**king got it!” he wrote.
We go there welcome! We won bro. Now we are in the big league.
According to Justice Department officials, Cherkasov’s intended goal was to gain access to and enter all corners of the American security establishment.
‘We made the future today – we managed to get into one of the best schools in the world,’ Cherkasov wrote in an email to his Russian handlers in 2018.
“We go there welcome! We won, brother,” Cherkasov wrote in another email to his Russian team regarding obtaining a US visa.
The Russian spy allegedly worked for a travel agency in Brazil, having started straight out of the hit TV show inspired by real life, The Americans.
In the latest round of revelations in the case, emails, letters, court documents and other information revealed the full story of Cherkasov’s path to the United States.
Law enforcement combed Cherkasov’s computer and found evidence ranging from court records, details about “dead drops” where messages could be left, records of illegal money transfers, and other nefarious details.
The Russian spy allegedly worked for a travel agency in Brazil, having started straight from the hit TV show inspired by real life, The Americans.
It was suspected that the agency was run by a GRU agent and has since been closed down.
Cherkasov also had a detailed back story to follow, referred to as his “legend”, which painted a tragic story for the “Brazilian”.
The story involved him being raised by his caretakers after his “Brazilian mother” G.IUrassi Eliza Ferreira passed away in 1993.
Court records say that the woman actually died childless.
Probably the strangest part of Cherkasov’s “legend” involves his own “manifesto” in which he attempted to identify his role.
One of the documents on his computer “reads like the notes of an actor trying to identify a part.” Washington Post wrote in an article.
The document reads: “I am Victor Muller Ferreira.”
He then goes on to describe his childhood in which he says he grew up smelling fish near a bridge in Rio de Janeiro, and describes a small poster of Pamela Anderson in the mechanic shop where he worked.
When asked about his ancestry given his bright blonde hair and accent, he said he was of German descent.
“My fellow pupils often used to joke about my appearance and my accent,” he says of his days in the schools — which did not happen — “They called me a gringo.” That’s why I didn’t have many friends.
Throughout the investigation and even after his identity was revealed, Russia repeatedly denied that Cherkasov was a Russian agent.
Cherkasov also had a detailed back story to follow, referred to as his “legend”, which painted a tragic story for the “Brazilian”. The story involved him being raised by his caretakers after the death of his “Brazilian mother” Jurassic Eliza Ferreira in 1993.
After graduation, Cherkasov was offered a job at the International Criminal Court
One of the documents on his computer “reads like the notes of an actor trying to identify a part,” the Washington Post wrote in an article
While at Johns Hopkins for two years, he reported frequently to his superiors at the GRU, according to an FBI affidavit.
After graduation, he was offered a position at the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands.
When he was about to start his six-month training in The Hague, he was rejected by the Dutch authorities.
Upon his arrival in the Netherlands, the Russian spy was sent back to Brazil based on information provided by the FBI.
In Brazil, he was promptly arrested and charged with acting as an agent of a foreign power, visa fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud, and other charges related to illegal activities in the United States.
He is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence.
In the months following his arrest, officials explored the extent of his assignment to both the United States and the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands.
in The Hague Cherkasov was tasked with gathering information about US policy toward a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Cherkasov wrote, “I have been working with my contacts…to find out what the academic community, political advisors, and analysts think of the recent Russian military buildup near the Ukrainian border.”
In particular, I aimed to find out what their advice to the administration was, said the letter shared in federal filings.
He allegedly told an official that one of his US security contacts “told (US Secretary of State Anthony) Blinkin… that the Russians always kept the line of respectful talks, but now nothing of the sort,” Cherkasov wrote.
And the letter continued, “Therefore, it emphasized in its reports that there is no possible diplomatic opening, and that the Russians are tired and will not negotiate.”
When he was about to start his six-month training in The Hague, he was rejected by the Dutch authorities upon his arrival in the Netherlands.
In Brazil, he was immediately arrested and charged with acting as an agent of a foreign power, visa fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud, and other charges related to illegal activities.
When he was arrested in Brazil, he was allegedly in possession of a hard drive with fake childhood memories.
Even after he was taken into custody, he confirmed that he was Brazilian.
Finally, at some point in the Brazilian court, he made a tearful confession where he said he had fled Russia for a petty crime.
Russia has stated that Cherkasov is Russian but denied that he is an agent of the GRU.
Since then, the Russian government has asked Brazil to extradite him.
