Moscow’s Mule: How Russia Rewrote a Narcotics Case to Get its Spy Back

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Russia is trying to reclaim a former deep-cover spy, Sergey Cherkasov, from a Brazilian jail by accusing him of being a hardened criminal on the run from Russian justice. However, Bellingcat has revealed that the Russian indictment documents provided to the Brazilians are full of inconsistencies and contradict travel data which shows that Cherkasov was not in Russia during the period of his alleged criminal activity. This is not the first time Russia has attempted to use bogus criminal charges to reclaim its agents abroad, and Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court is now set to decide whether to approve Cherkasov’s extradition. Read full article here

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