Russian spy taught English in Dublin language school while studying in Trinity

The spy had studied political science at Trinity College Dublin. Picture: Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie

The Russian spy who attempted to infiltrate the International Criminal Court in The Hague using a "well-constructed cover identity" had taught in an English language college in Dublin for more than a year. 

Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov has been accused of being an agent of Russia’s GRU military intelligence, and flew to the Netherlands from Brazil in April, to work undercover in the war crimes court in the Hague. 

He was using the false identity of a 33-year-old Brazilian citizen, Viktor Muller Ferreira.

He was detected by Dutch security forces and refused entry into the Netherlands. He was returned to Brazil on the next available flight.

Previously, the 36-year-old had studied political science at Trinity College Dublin under the guise of Victor Muller between 2014 and 2018. 

His online CV (also in the name of Victor Muller) cites his work experience, including just over a year at the International Student Center in Dublin, as a student coordinator and teacher assistant, from 2014 to 2015.

His CV says he directed general English exams, taught English for academic purposes on international foundation year (business, science, and philosophy streams), covered areas of academic reading skills, writing skills, listening, and speaking skills, and led small group academic tutorials on general algebra and geometry classes.

After leaving TCD, he studied at John Hopkins University in the US where a minor subject taken by him was conflict management, according to the document.

His Facebook profile, also in the name of Victor Muller, shows a friends list which includes fellow students at TCD and John Hopkins University, and several from Brazil, the country he claimed to be from.

A Twitter page linked to him has been temporarily restricted.

In a statement, AVID, the Dutch intelligence service, said that Cherkasov “used a well-constructed cover identity by which he concealed all his ties with Russia in general, and the GRU in particular”.

The statement added: “An officer of this kind is better known as an ‘illegal’: an intelligence officer who received a long and extensive training. Because of their alias identity, illegals are difficult to discover. 

“For that reason they often remain undetected, allowing them to carry out intelligence activities. Because they present themselves as foreigners, they have access to information that would be inaccessible to a Russian national.

“In addition to the GRU, the Russian intelligence service SVR also makes use of illegals.” 

And it said: “The International Criminal Court investigates possible war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine. The ICC is also investigating war crimes that took place during the Russian war in Georgia in 2008. 

“For those reasons, covert access to International Criminal Court information would be highly valuable to the Russian intelligence services.” 

The intelligence agency released the wording of a four-page document which has a detailed “history” of the man Cherkasov was claiming to be – a Brazilian whose family background included living in poverty. 

It details school stories including references to teachers and of early work in a garage which, he noted, had a poster of Pamela Anderson.

Under the persona of Victor Muller, he also set up a geopolitical blog in 2017, with one post examining why US and European countries are “so democratic and developed”, and “why do ‘they’ live according to the rule of law and we live according to the rule of those who have a fat wallet?”