SAIS Johns Hopkins is the best international relations program in the US, according to Russian intelligence
Suck it, SIPA!
Youth nerd dream achieved! I have been quoted (again!) in the Economist. Check out the article on Russian oligarch yachts here.
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ALEX’S WEEKLY RANT
Congratulations to the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, SAIS, the top international relations program in the US, according to Russian intelligence services. Suck it, SIPA!
Hi there man
Today we made the future - we managed to get in one of the top schools in the world – [SAIS]. This is the victory that belongs to all of us man - to the entire team. Today we fucking drink!!!
[UNIVERSITY 2] is still silent, but to be honest, bro, I don`t give a damn. Remember that I told you that [SAIS] is a better place for us?! Trust my word - it is better. And there is no better and more prestigious place for us to be.
We fucking did it!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
That was the response of Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, aka Victor Muller Ferreira, when he received his acceptance letter from SAIS. Cherkasov is a Russian deep cover intelligence officer, an “illegal”, who cultivated his Ferreira alter ego in Brazil before applying to one of the top universities in the US, according to an FBI indictment charging him with, among other things, being a foreign agent. He emailed his Russian handlers and shared the victory with them. (No word on which school University 2 is, but how happy are they now if they rejected the guy?)
Full disclosure: I am a SAIS graduate; I am not a Russian intelligence officer.
When I attended SAIS, back in the 20th century when email was barely used and therefore could not be intercepted by the FBI to later be used in an indictment against a Russian spy, we used to jokingly ask who was the spy among us. It was something of a parlor game. It was a target-rich environment, after all, where it was expected that graduates would go on to reach the highest levels of their countries’ diplomatic corps, military, or national security establishment. Or start their own substack.
SAIS’s Bologna campus, which was set up in 1955, was even rumored to have been sponsored by the CIA, as a way to have a base in Italy, and specifically Bologna, which at the time was playing a major role in the Cold War tug of war between East and West.
A little about Cherkasov.
He fraudulently obtained a Brazilian birth certificate with the name Victor Muller Ferreira. That document had been issued years before Cherkasov arrived in Brazil, suggesting other Russian intelligence officers were on the ground before him, laying the foundation for his cover. He then used the document to create a full Brazilian identity.
He later applied to and attended SAIS, graduating in 2020 (congratulations, Victor!), and then landed an internship at the International Criminal Court, where he was set to start just as Russia began its invasion of Ukraine (meaning he would have been nicely placed to spy on the ICC as it considered Russia and its war crimes). “Ferreira” flew from Brazil to the Netherlands to report for his internship, but was met by Dutch hospitality, aka Dutch intelligence officers, who were apparently tipped off by another Western intelligence service. The Dutch questioned Cherkasov/Ferreira and then put him back on a plane to Brazil (no word on who paid for the return trip, although I’m guessing the GRU; I hope Cherkasov got a receipt). Upon arrival in Brazil, Cherkasov was arrested. (This was last summer; the FBI indictment was only revealed recently.)
Sloppy Work
When he was arrested, “Ferreira” had on him several electronic devices, including a hard drive that contained “Ferreira’s” entire back story, his “legend.”
His back story included information on his deceased mother and distant father, as well as explanations for why he, a Brazilian, disliked seafood and didn’t look or sound Brazilian. He altered his back story when he applied to SAIS, though, writing out his fake parents and claiming instead that he was an orphan. He also kept his real mother’s phone number on his fake persona’s phone.
Authorities also found online pictures of Cherkasov from his pre-Ferreira days, wearing a Russian military uniform, highlighting how difficult it is to create a totally fake persona these days. Everybody’s gotta Instagram everything and next thing you know, an old post with your military buddies helps out you as a spy. The only surefire way around this is to raise some babies in total isolation and groom them from the beginning to be deep cover officers. I would not put it past Russia to do something this monstrous.
Brazilian authorities also found on Cherkasov three thumb drives, including one indicating he had hidden electronic equipment in Brazil, likely for covert communications (go look at that face palm gif again). The thumb drive had maps and photos indicating where those devices were hidden. Helpful! He even had on him an Uber receipt indicating exactly when he had gone to hide the equipment. Brazilian authorities followed the treasure map and seized the equipment Cherkasov had hidden.
Russia Asks To Have Their Dude Back
Cherkasov was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison in Brazil.
Brazil then notified the Russian consulate, and the conversation went something like this:
Brazil: Yo, is this guy one of your citizens?
Russia: Yes indeed, he is! That’s Sergey Cherkasov. Can we have him back, please?
Brazil: Well, we just busted him for fraud and being a Russian spy.
Russia: My friend! You have it all wrong! He is wanted in Russia for drug trafficking, so we want to extradite him to Russia so we can punish him here. We will throw him behind bars, we promise!
Brazil:
Now, for some reason, Cherkasov didn’t seem too concerned about being extradited to Russia to be tossed in a Russian prison for drug trafficking. To be fair, I can’t imagine a Brazilian prison is all that nice, either. Really, the best place to get caught is probably Norway or Sweden. I digress…
Anyway, Cherkasov seemed very much convinced his friends from the Russian consulate were going to get him out of Brazilian jail and into Russian freedom, probably because the “wanted for drug trafficking” story was totally fake, as Bellingcat discovered (and the FBI confirmed in the indictment).
In a letter from his Brazilian prison to his lover, Cherkasov wrote:
Good news is that in 2 weeks my case is gonna be finished (like no revision of it, no appeal, like boom over). And when it’s finished, then my extradition is on. According to my friends the paperwork takes 3-4 weeks, maybe faster. We don’t know. Also much of the paperwork could be done before the “finishing” of the case, so we are very positive about September. Fingers crossed. But I truly feel the end is near, [W4 first name]. . . . I dream a lot about our New Year - you and me in St. Petersburg in snow walking to the Winter Palace. All will be well [happy face image] [signed] Prisoner of War.
Indeed, it seems from the indictment that Cherkasov was getting a lot of attention from Russian consulate officials, who told him he’d be out soon and apparently allowed him to send such messages to his lover. These visits likely aimed to prevent Cherkasov from turning, to assess the damage, and to send a message to other Russian agents that they won’t be left to rot in prison if they get caught. We saw similar behavior when Mariia Butina was convicted of being a Russian spy in the United States.
The Damage
Cherkasov sent his handlers lists of targets of interest. He participated in a SAIS trip to Israel and promptly reported the names of everyone working at the US Embassy in Jerusalem, “literally every single one,” he insisted. He also sent a list of people of interest he had met at SAIS, including people from think tanks, Congressional intelligence committees, the State Department, and the Naval Academy.
Despite all those contacts, he had really bad intelligence. In November 2021, he wrote his GRU friends:
[T]he administration is definitely not in any position to help Ukrainians, if the fight breaks out. Whatever the press says or political promises were made, they are not going to be enforced beyond just words. The administration does not want this conflict, because they don’t have any meaningful way of gaining something out of it. … There are no signs indicating that the US is going to provide any but political support to the Ukrainians in case of war.
Still, he aimed to infiltrate deeper, applying for positions in “international organizations, including the United Nations and the ICC; sensitive positions at U.S. companies that required a security clearance; U.S. universities; U.S. think-tanks; U.S. financial institutions; a U.S. media outlet; and a position in the U.S. government,” according to the indictment.
In the end, he did land a coveted internship at the International Criminal Court, no easy feat. And he did it with a letter of recommendation from a professor at SAIS, who has since revealed his anger. The professor is, after all, a native of Ukraine.
SAIS also has to reckon with the fact that, unbeknownst to them, the GRU paid Cherkasov’s tuition.
Missing Home
Despite unlocking achievement in America and Brazil, Cherkasov missed Russia. At one point, he asked his handlers if they could arrange for him to get some borscht at the hotel where he would be staying for his meetings with them.
Can you please, ask if they can do that traditional B-soup, in the hotel that I am going to stay for my arrival? I am literally duing [sic] to eat it! I was dreaming of it the whole year!!! Bro, please!!!
Hope he likes feijoada and that they don’t serve too much fish in Brazilian prison.
The Pattern
It’s a terrible time to be a Russian intelligence officer. They’re dropping like flies. In December, two alleged “illegals” were arrested in Slovenia. They, too, used South American personas. Their arrest might have triggered another “illegal,” posing as a Greek owner of a knitting shop, to flee Greece. In October last year, Norway arrested another alleged Russian illegal posing as an academic at a university there. Like Cherkasov, he, too, used a Brazilian persona. Yet another illegal, posing as a Peruvian jewelry designer who hung out at a NATO base in Naples, Italy, was outed last summer. Indeed, there’s a laundry list of others who’ve been caught spying for Russia, not to mention all those Russian “diplomats” who’ve been kicked out of the West. I’m sure they have great job prospects back in Russia [insert gif of them typing with mittens in Siberia].
There are reports that Slovenia is in talks with Russia to negotiate an exchange for the two illegals picked up there. It remains unclear if the US plans to try to extradite Cherkasov to the US. Russia, meanwhile, just this week arrested an American journalist working for the Wall Street Journal in Russia, accusing him of being a spy. We have to wonder if Russia is collecting hostages to exchange.
The Bigger Picture
Despite our successes catching many of these people, we do need some introspection. I mean, a Russian intelligence officer managed to get accepted to, graduate from, and receive a letter of recommendation from a top university in the US. Chances are, he’s not the only one. Western universities are a huge tool in our soft power toolbox, but we need to be aware of the counterintelligence risks of foreign students, particularly, I would argue, those who are either Russian or Chinese. Although, of course, “Ferreira” was Brazilian, so it’s a rather complex issue to untangle, particularly for a school like SAIS, which prides itself on serving an international student body. But clearly universities are a great target. China has taken note of that, as well. A number of cases of alleged Chinese espionage in the US involve students or researchers at US universities. My guess is, this latest Cherkasov case is going to leave a number of universities on edge.
THE WEEK’S LINKS
A roundup of stories you should be reading
(Note: I reserve the right to rant in depth about any of these at a future date)
RUSSIA
Moscow Elite in a Panic Over Tape Blasting Putin as “Satan” (The Daily Beast)
TIKTOK AND UKRAINE
Arms Manufacturer Says TikTok ‘Cat Videos’ Are Keeping It From Making Ammo (Vice)
THE POPE AND AI
NORTH KOREA
Inside North Korea’s oil smuggling: triads, ghost ships and underground banks (FT)
YOUR FEEL-GOOD STORY OF THE WEEK
Meatball from long-extinct mammoth created by food firm (The Guardian)
Alex Finley is a former officer of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, where she served in West Africa and Europe. She writes and teaches about terrorism, disinformation / covert influence, and oligarch yachts. Her writing has appeared in Slate, Reductress, Funny or Die, POLITICO, The Center for Public Integrity, and other publications. She has spoken to the BBC, MSNBC, CNN, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, France24, and numerous other media outlets. She was also invited once to speak at Harvard, which she now tells everyone within the first ten seconds of meeting them. She is the author of the Victor Caro series, satirical novels about the CIA. Before joining the CIA, Alex was a journalist, covering Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and the Department of Energy. She reported on issues related to national security, intelligence, and homeland security. Did she mention she was invited to speak at Harvard?
