JAKARTA - The Dutch authorities said that Russian intelligence that was caught when they were about to enter the country had been accepted for an internship at an international institution, using a neat ID cover.
Dutch intelligence services said they had identified Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, a so-called Russian intelligence officer, who tried to enter the Netherlands under a different identity to cover his background.
Furthermore, the Dutch agency said it had taken the unusual step of releasing detailed information about the case, to expose the workings of Russian intelligence and threats to other international agencies.
The Netherlands' Public Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) said it distributed a four-page document outlining what it said was a cover story that Cherkasov created.
That includes a troubled family history and details from the club where he likes to listen to electronic trance music, to his favorite restaurant in Brasilia where he eats chocolate bean soup.
"Cherkasov uses a well-constructed cover identity, in which he hides all his relations with Russia in general, and the GRU (Russian intelligence agency) in particular," the statement said.
As previously reported, Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov made an elaborate cover story several years ago to try and enter the Netherlands as a Brazilian citizen and apprentice at the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) in April, said agency head Erik Akerboom.
"This is a long-term, multi-year GRU operation that costs a lot of time, energy, and money," the head of the Dutch intelligence agency said.
The Netherlands Public Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) said in a statement the man, who went by the alias Viktor Muller Ferreira, was picked up at a Dutch airport. He was declared an unwanted foreigner and placed on the next flight back to Brazil, he added.
"This clearly shows us what Russia is doing, trying to gain illegal access to information inside the ICC. We classify this as a high-level threat," Akerboom added, saying the ICC had accepted him for an internship.
Far away, Brazil's federal police said Cherkasov was being held and tried for the use of forged documents.
Brazilian police said Cherkasov entered Brazil in 2010 and used a false identity as a Brazilian whose parents had died. Graduated as a Brazilian, he lived in Ireland and the United States for several years, a police statement said, and has returned to Brazil to prepare for his move to the Netherlands.
There has been no immediate comment on this case from the Russian government or the ICC.
The ICC, a permanent global war crimes tribunal with 123 member states, opened an investigation in Ukraine just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops on February 24. The ICC is examining allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
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The Netherlands has expelled more than 20 Russians accused of spying in recent years. They include four people accused in 2018 of hacking the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), two accused of spying on companies, the high-tech sector in 2020, and 17 suspected operatives accredited as diplomats who were expelled following the invasion of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Russia has denied all allegations and responded to the latest expulsions by also expelling 15 Dutch embassy and consulate staff from Moscow and St. Petersburg.
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