THE HAGUE, Netherlands (CN) — Dutch authorities say they uncovered a Russian spy attempting to infiltrate the International Criminal Court to gain access to sensitive information about ongoing war crimes investigations in Ukraine.
The Dutch intelligence service, known by its Dutch acronym AIVD, announced on Thursday it had prevented Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, a Russian military intelligence officer, from entering the country in April to start an internship with the ICC.
The Hague-based court is currently looking into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the ongoing Ukraine war.
“Covert access to International Criminal Court information would be highly valuable to the Russian intelligence services,” the AVID said in a statement.
Traveling under the Brazilian alias Viktor Muller Ferreira, Cherkasov was picked up at Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport after traveling to the Netherlands. He was deported back to Brazil, where he is now facing charges.
The AVID released a four-page document describing the Ferreira cover story contained in the internship application. He had a difficult life, including an absent father and a single mother who worked as a dancer to support her son before succumbing to pneumonia at a young age, leaving him to abandon his schooling to sell socks and underwear on the street. Application details included his love of trance music and brown bean stew and an interest in politics.
In reality, Cherkasov worked for Moscow’s foreign military intelligence agency, best known by the Russian acronym GRU.
“This was a long-term, multi-year GRU operation that cost a lot of time, energy and money,” AVID chief Erik Akerboom told Reuters.
The GRU's primary purpose is to gather military intelligence but it can also be involved in operations that are more political or technological in nature. Had he been successful, the AVID believes Cherkasov could have provided the GRU with significant intelligence.
“He might also have been able to influence criminal proceedings of the ICC,” the agency said in a statement.
Dutch authorities had notified the court of the espionage attempt. “The ICC takes these threats very seriously and will continue to work and cooperate with the Netherlands," court spokesperson Sonia Robla said in a statement.
In April, the ICC has sent its largest team ever – 42 experts – to collect evidence of ongoing crimes in Ukraine. Nearly half of the team is from the Netherlands. The United Nations estimates some 7,000 civilian casualties in the country since major fighting began.
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