Fachin keeps Russian spy in prison; only Lula can release him to Moscow

Minister Edson Fachin, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), denied a request for the release of Russian Serguei Vladimirovich Cherkasov, identified by the United States and the Netherlands as a spy for Vladimir Putin’s regime. Imprisoned since April 2022 in the maximum security penitentiary in Brasília, he has already been convicted in Brazil for using a false document and is still being investigated by the Federal Police for alleged espionage, money laundering and passive corruption.

In its request for freedom, the Federal Public Defender’s Office (DPU), which advocates for Cherkasov, argued that he had already served the time necessary to progress to the open regime and that, last year, he voluntarily agreed to be handed over to Russia, which requested his extradition to Brazil pointing out alleged drug trafficking crimes in that country.

Fachin denied the request for freedom, for Serguei’s immediate delivery to Russia, considering that prison is still necessary to await the end of investigations in Brazil. He noted, however, that, in this situation, only the President of the Republic could order the release, to hand over the foreigner subject of an extradition request to the interested country.

“I note, at this point, the established guideline of this Court according to which the exclusive prerogative of the President of the Republic is the competence to early release the extradited person, a hypothesis now provided for in the rule of art. 95 of the Migration Law and the regulatory discipline of article 8 of Ordinance No. 217, of 2/27/2018, of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security”, wrote the minister in the decision.

Thus, although Fachin understands that Serguei should remain in prison until the end of his sentence or pending cases in Brazilian justice, it is possible for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to bring forward his handover to Moscow.

In the decision, he also cited a similar decision by Minister Alexandre de Moraes, according to which “the forecast of postponing the surrender due to the existence of ongoing criminal proceedings in Brazil is not a guarantee in favor of the person being extradited, but of the Brazilian State – so that it can exercise its sovereignty, internally – and, consequently, it can no longer be observed, in this specific case, due to an eminently political decision of its representative, personified in the person of the Head of State”.

Last year, the Lula government denied a United States request to extradite Serguei Cherkasov. There, he is accused of acting as an agent of a foreign power, visa fraud, bank fraud and electronic fraud, crimes that occurred between 2018 and 2020, when he enrolled at Johns Hopkins University to, according to American authorities, collect intelligence information.

The Russian was deported from the Netherlands to Brazil in 2022 after trying, with a false Brazilian passport, to work as an intern at the International Criminal Court. The Dutch secret service says it wanted to gather information that would interest Moscow – the court is investigating war crimes in Ukraine. The PF discovered that he arrived in Brazil in 2010 and managed to issue a false passport as a Brazilian, through which he introduced himself as Victor Muller Ferreira. According to the Dutch secret service, he belongs to the GRU, the Russian Defense military intelligence unit.

In his decision, Fachin highlighted that he was convicted of “serious crimes” in Russia, criminal organization and preparation for drug trafficking. “He escaped from that country to avoid his criminal responsibilities. Even though he was wanted for crimes that occurred in Russia, he persisted in carrying out illegal acts during the time he remained in Brazil, being convicted by Brazilian justice for the crime of using a falsified public document. Furthermore, it responds to criminal proceedings relating to possible acts of espionage, money laundering and corruption and passive corruption”, noted the minister.

Since the beginning of this third term, Lula has shown signs of rapprochement with Putin. In December, he said that the Russian president may be invited to participate in this year’s G20 meeting in Brazil, even though he is the subject of an international arrest warrant for war crimes in Ukraine. Last week, he avoided criticizing Putin’s regime when asked about the death, in prison, of activist and opponent of the regime Alexei Navalny.