He never liked the smell of fish, because of the bad childhood memories in Brazil associated with it. His mother died of cancer and he was raised by his aunt, who was struggling to make ends meet because of the backlash in Brazil of the economic crisis that hit neighboring Argentina in the early 2000s.

A very sad family story... completely invented by Sergei Vladimirovich Cherkasov, a Russian "illegal agent" indicted by the United States on Saturday, March 25, for multiple frauds and for having resided in the United States under a false identity.

Good kisses from Brazil

Sergei Vladimirovich Cherkasov impersonated Viktor Muller Ferreira, a young Brazilian who almost joined the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, for more than a decade. But Dutch authorities unmasked him in July 2022, before he began a six-month internship there.

This thirty-year-old was then sent back to Brazil where he has been waiting for nearly six months to find out if he will be extradited to the United States... or Russia. Indeed, Moscow says it wants to prosecute him in connection with a drug trafficking case. A charge described as "dubious" by the US Department of Justice, which believes that Russia is only seeking to repatriate one of its agents.

This battle over the fate of Sergei Cherkasov and the extraordinary journey of this spy "are symptomatic of the way Russia now manages its notorious program of illegals," said Jenny Mathers, a political scientist and Russian intelligence specialist at Aberystwyth University in Wales.

"Illegals" are agents sent by Russia abroad to lead a seemingly normal life for decades before being "activated" by Moscow to spy on a target country.

Arriving in Brazil in the early 2010s, Sergei Vladimirovich Cherkasov is building a new life under the name of Viktor Muller Ferreira. The choice of country is not surprising: "Russia is increasingly using South America for the cover of its agents, because it is relatively easy to obtain false documents; moreover, the ethnic mixing present in many countries in the region makes it easier for a Russian national to blend in," said Jeff Hawn, a specialist in Russian security issues and an external consultant for the New Lines Institute, an American geopolitical research center.

The sleeper agent then studied political science at Trinity University in Dublin, then international relations at the famous Johns Hopkins University in Washington from 2018. At the end of his university studies, he knocks on all possible doors of so-called sensitive institutions whose secrets could interest his real employer: the GRU, the Russian military intelligence service. Without specifically naming them, the FBI cites "several U.S. companies requiring security clearances, U.S. banks, think tanks, universities, and a media outlet."

A "legend" as detailed as possible

It is finally the International Criminal Court that accepts him for an internship in April 2022. An ideal position for a Russian spy: "At the time, the court began to study the accusations of Russian war crimes in Ukraine, and if Cherkasov had been able to work there, he would have had access to the email system and could have falsified evidence or destroyed it," says the British daily The Guardian.

No one knows how the Dutch authorities managed to unmask this "illegal", but his arrest led to a large-scale unpacking of the GRU's efforts to allow Sergei Cherkasov to approach the circles of power discreetly. Brazilian authorities and the FBI have made public some of the communications he had with his handling officer, emails he sent to colleagues bragging about his academic achievements, and the full document in which the agent detailed his "legend" (i.e. the story of his fake life).

A unique story that highlights the care taken in every detail of this cover. "It's clearly a very professional job done from Moscow," Hawn said. The whole life and work of Viktor Muller Ferreira is included, from the divorce of his parents to the difficulties of little Viktor to make friends in class because he "looks like a German". We even discover why, as a child, he allegedly liked to "watch cars cross the bridge [13 km between the cities, editor's note] of Rio and Niteroi". This avalanche of anecdotes proves that "in the age of social networks, it has become imperative to take even more care of your 'legend' if you want to succeed in giving the change," says Jeff Hawn.

It's rare to have such a complete behind-the-scenes look at the creation of an "illegal," but "it's probably because the U.S. wants to remind the world that this is a practice that Russian intelligence still largely uses," Mathers said.

Is not Kim Philby who wants

The "illegals" program is often associated with the Soviet Union and such famous figures as Kim Philby, a Russian double agent who became one of the most senior British intelligence officials in the 1950s.

But "a little by bureaucratic inertia and a little by Russian culture of espionage, this type of long-term operation continued to be maintained after the fall of the USSR," says Jenny Mathers. For this expert, one of the main reasons for the survival of "illegals" in the Internet age is that "Russian spies attach great importance to human intelligence and thus hope to obtain better quality information".

The results of this effort, however, do not seem to live up to expectations. Sergei Cherkasov is not the first to be arrested. In 2010, the United States unmasked a network of a dozen spies who had been living the "American dream" of the middle class for decades. A case that had considerably cooled relations between Washington and Moscow.

Admittedly, "there are probably other sleeper agents that are still waiting to be activated," says Jenny Mathers. But "each 'illegal' represents a considerable investment of time and money for Moscow, so the information transmitted must be of the highest order. But for now, we don't get the impression that the Kremlin has the best possible intelligence on American intentions," Hawn said.

For him, there is little doubt that Sergei Cherkasov will eventually be extradited to the United States, where "he will probably serve as a bargaining chip in the hands of Washington". Perhaps for Paul Whelan, an American national sentenced in 2020 to 15 years in prison in Russia for "espionage".

The summary of the week France 24 invites you to look back on the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news with you everywhere! Download the France 24 app