Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, a Russian intelligence officer, has been charged in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for acting as an illegal agent of a Russian intelligence service. He had been living in the US under the alias Victor Muller Ferreira since 2018, and was gathering information on U.S. foreign policy before his cover was blown. The Justice Department has warned that foreign intelligence services are increasingly targeting the U.S. and its allies.