Victor Ivanovich Cherkashin () was born in 1932 in the village of Krasnoe in the Kursk region was a counter-intelligence officer of the KGB. He joined the KGB in 1952 and retired in 1991. He was the case officer for both Aldrich Ames, a CIA counter-intelligence officer, and Robert Hanssen, an FBI agent, when they spied for the Soviet Union. Cherkashin served for many years in the KGB's First Chief Directorate, the department dedicated to foreign counter-intelligence. His career included tours in Lebanon, India, Australia, West Germany and Washington, DC.