Brazil judges block international requests to extradite alleged Russian spy
July 31, 2023 1 Comment
THE BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT IS blocking requests from the United States and Russia to extradite an alleged Russian deep-cover spy, whose forged Brazilian identity papers were discovered by Dutch counterintelligence. Sergey Cherkasov was expelled by authorities in the Netherlands in June 2022, after he attempted to enter the country using a Brazilian-issued passport under the name of Victor Muller Ferreira.
Within a few days of his expulsion, Dutch and American counterintelligence had outed Cherkasov as an intelligence officer of the Main Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces’ General Staff, which is commonly known as GRU. Cherkasov is alleged to have built his forged identity over several years, while operating in Brazil and the United States. Upon returning to Brazil, Cherkasov was sentenced to 15 years in prison for using forged Brazilian identity documents.
Last week, Cherkasov’s sentence was reduced to 5 years, after a court in Brazil dropped some of the initial charges that had been filed against him by the Brazilian government prosecutor’s office. Cherkasov’s lawyers are now arguing that their client does not pose a flight risk and should therefore be allowed to serve the remainder of his sentence outside of prison, wearing an electronic tagging device.
These recent developments are of concern to authorities in the United States. The latter have filed an extradition request for Cherkasov, claiming that he spent several years as a graduate student in an American university while using his forged Brazilian identity papers. During that time, Cherkasov is alleged to have repeatedly communicated with his Russian intelligence handlers, supplying them with information about American politics and policy.
However, the Ministry of Justice and Public Security of Brazil said on Friday that Washington’s extradition request had been denied and that Cherkasov would remain in Brazil. The apparent reason for the denial is that Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court had already approved a similar extradition request for Cherkasov, which was filed in April by the Russian government. Moscow claims that Cherkasov is wanted in Russia for narcotics trafficking. The Russians also deny that the alleged spy worked for the GRU or any other government agency.
Yet, despite claims to the contrary, the Brazilian government appears to be essentially stalling on Moscow’s extradition request. On Friday, Flávio Dino, who serves as Minister of Justice under the administration of President Inácio Lula, stated that Cherkasov would continue to serve his prison sentence in Brazil until further notice. In the United States, CBS News reported that Cherkasov’s extradition to Russia would take place “only […] after the final judgment of all of his cases here in Brazil” has been issued, according to the accused spy’s lawyers.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 31 July 2023 | Permalink
intelNews.org 
The US, Netherlands and Brazil very likely have sufficient evidence that Cherkasov, a Russian with an invalid Brazilian birth certificate, was working for the Russian Government as an intelligence officer “illegal” in the GRU.
As with previous cases concerning its illegals, Russia, or its cutouts, is prepared to spend big money in bribes to judges and officials, rebadged as “fines” and other Brazilian legal process costs to reduce Cherkasov’s sentence from 15 to 5 years (check). For more “fines/costs” permit Cherkasov to wear an electronic tagging device. Then for more “fines/costs” and as Russia is calling Cherkasov a criminal “wanted in Russia” Cherkasov can serve the balance of his reduced 5 year sentence and theoretically new Russian charges, in a Russian “jail” (up-market apartment in Moscow).
In these ways Russian money can provide a Brazilian version of Cherkasov’s miraculous rebirth. The alternative of Cherkasov being a talkative embarrassment, remaining in Brazil, may be too risky.
On Brazil and bribes, it is significant that the world Corruption Perceptions Index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index#2020%E2%80%932022 ranks Brazil as Highly Corrupt, being joint 94th with the likes of Ethiopia and even more corrupt than drug addled Columbia.