Victor Muller’s accent didn’t sound right.
The man allegedly now a Russian spy was studying at the prestigious Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, an elite graduate program favored by U.S. military personnel, young diplomats, and, according to sources, future spies.
Gregary, intelligent and often seen wearing a helmet for his beloved motorcycle, “Woman” was known, and even liked, by his classmates and SAIS faculty. But his confused accent caught the ear of a few classmates. On one occasion, a fellow student asked him directly, “Are you Russian?”
Dutch intelligence thwarted a Russian attempt to put a spy on the International Criminal Court. (AP)
The spy rejected 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 condition of anonymity.
“I remember thinking at the time that it really didn’t make sense.”
“Woman” 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 travel to the Netherlands to initiate an internship at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
From there, he would have had a pole to spy on war crimes investigations into Russian military actions in Ukraine and elsewhere, sources say.
Dutch officials arrested him at the border and sent him back to Brazil, where he lived under the forged identity of a Brazilian man whose parents have died, according to Brazilian police.
It was not immediately clear when the US realized Cherkasov’s true identity. The FBI has an open active investigation, according to a source familiar with the intelligence.
U.S. and Dutch intelligence agencies shared information about Cherkasov some time ago, according to a separate U.S. official, although it is unclear when it happened. However, another US official did not address how the Russian intelligence connection came to light, adding that the FBI worked closely with the Dutch authorities to monitor its activities. .
“Victor Muller” is believed to be the nickname of Russian spy Sergey Cherkasov. (Facebook)
The revelation of Cherkasov’s true identity has affected SAIS faculty. But for former intelligence officials, Cherkasov fits in with a well-known pattern: Russia, among other foreign powers, is looking to place young intelligence agents in American academic institutions to help build its identities. deep coverage.
Often, the mission of so-called “illegals” – a spy operating under an identity that is in no way linked to the Russian government – is to do little more than simply establish legitimacy as a student, said John McLaughlin, a former director. CIA deputy who now teaches at SAIS.
“It’s not weird,” McLaughlin said.
“My feeling is that going through SAIS was a kind of laundering experience for him. These Russian illegals usually go through a long accreditation process in order to establish credibility as they say they are.”
SAIS declined to comment when CNN contacted her on Friday. But in an email to teachers and students obtained by CNN, SAIS dean Jim Steinberg confirmed that Cherkasov graduated in 2020.
“We continue to oversee developments, but we have no further information to share at this time,” Steinberg wrote.
Cherkasov did not respond to a phone call or text message asking for comments on Friday.
The Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies, where he studied the alleged spy. (Johns Hopkins University / Twitter) It appears that Cherkasov carried out this mission quite successfully. One of Cherkasov’s professors – who taught a class on genocide – wrote his letter of reference for internships in The Hague.
In another SAIS class, “he was the teacher’s favorite,” said another classmate, who like other former classmates spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from services. Russian security forces. “He was a very nice guy, very open-minded, very active in class.”
“This guy would never have suspected [of being a spy]the former classmate told CNN.
A third former classmate of Cherkasov, a U.S. Army officer, started a conversation one day with Woman about her shared love for motorcycles. Eventually, he had the impression that he and Muller could go for a walk together, the military officer told CNN.
But then he asked Muller if he spoke Russian, as it looked like it could be based on his accent.
Müller denied being able to speak Russian and withdrew, the military officer said. The motorcycle trip never happened.
Keeping agents hidden in the age of social media is harder for the Kremlin. (Getty)
Several former intelligence officials told CNN that it would not be uncommon for U.S. counterintelligence officials to allow an “illegal” Russian to continue his studies to observe him and try to find out who his contacts are. , if you are operating on a larger network within the US, and how you are building your cover. The United States may have alerted the Dutch intelligence service, these people said.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on the case.
But another former counterintelligence officer noted that U.S. intelligence services are sometimes unaware of student spies until they are more actively engaged in espionage; inclined foreign policy.
Former intelligence officials say why the Kremlin wants to install a spy in the International Criminal Court is clear: It would offer Russia a crucial window for the investigation of alleged Russian war crimes: in Georgia in 2008 and in Ukraine in 2022.
“For these reasons, covert access to information from the International Criminal Court would be very valuable for Russian intelligence services,” Dutch intelligence said in a statement.
Planting a spy effectively is becoming increasingly difficult for intelligence services around the world, thanks to ubiquitous surveillance technology and the degree to which most people live their entire lives online in 2022. .
The Hague is investigating claims of Russian war crimes in Ukraine. (AP)
An online profile that only appeared a few years ago, or a profile that suddenly becomes inactive, may be a warning to counterintelligence agents trying to detect spies.
The problem is equally difficult for American spies operating overseas under “unofficial cover,” a so-called NOC.
“Any kind of long-term illegal is not a dying race, but it is much harder to do now than before,” said a former U.S. counterintelligence official.
“And that’s true for everyone.”
The United States arrested and deported 10 Russian agents as part of a spy exchange with Moscow in 2010, one of whom had graduated from the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard 10 years earlier and had been living in Cambridge with his wife and two children.
The evacuee says goodbye emotionally to his dog
Later, Harvard removed Andrey Bezrukov – who was called Donald Heathfield – from his title. His wife, Elena Vavilova, graduated from McGill University and was deported as part of the same exchange.
Cherkasov had similarly tried to construct a silent alternative identity over the years. The Dutch intelligence agency published a crude “legend” that says it was probably written by Cherkasov in mid-2010, exposing his false story as a Brazilian born in Rio de Janeiro in 1989.
He details this false family history through several 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 university at Trinity College Dublin, studied political science and graduated in 2018. The same year, he traveled to the US to pursue his master’s degree in SAIS.
Throughout his time as a student, Muller maintained an active digital life. In 2017 he started a blog on geopolitics, according to the open source intelligence company Bellingcat.
He maintained a Facebook account and a Twitter account, full of friends from both schools, and in September 2018, he posted a YouTube video introducing his new bike. In the video, a man can be heard Bellingcat identifies as Cherkasov laughing and greeting a car of tourists walking near the Potomac River.
Although it is unclear to what extent Russian intelligence conspired to place Cherkasov in The Hague – some former intelligence officials said it could have been an opportunistic plan rather than a long-term one. – Cherkasov took classes that made sense to an interested student in The Hague, as a professional career, including a class on genocide.
A political note Cherkasov wrote for one of his SAIS classes shows the sober, anecdotal analysis one might expect from an international affairs student. The note, obtained by CNN, advocates for possible U.S. responses to the United Nations to help stop genocide. It is the kind of U.S. political discussion that has been applied in recent months to try to reduce Russian violence in Ukraine.
And according to several people he knew while he was at SAIS, Cherkasov was a good student: intelligent, committed, and speaking in class.
One class Muller enrolled in or audited was on strategic diplomacy, popular with U.S. military and intelligence professionals, and taught by Steinberg, a former deputy secretary of state in the administration. of Obama and current dean of SAIS, according to one of the former SAIS. students.
SAIS faculty and students have been taken aback by the revelation that the funny-accented Brazilian student was, in fact, a Russian spy. SAIS teachers who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity say the school’s communication with them has been straightforward, little more than an acknowledgment of public information.
“It’s nasty,” said the former SAIS student who pressured Cherkasov with his accent.
“For …