In less than two years, at least three Russian spies are suspected of having created a new identity in Brazil. But the country is now investigating the extent of the network and hopes to identify new agents.
“Rio no longer responds“, or when reality exceeds fiction. The intelligence services of several countries of the world suspect Brazil of having become a cradle of Russian spies. Since 2022, at least three Russians are suspected of having made up a new identity in Brazil, taking advantage of loopholes in the local system.The local intelligence services believe that other Russian agents may have passed through the country.
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Suspicions aroused when a certain Victor Ferreira, Brazilian passport in hand, landed in April 2022 at Amsterdam airport. However, Victor does not exist, it is actually Sergey Cherkasov, a Russian citizen who, at the time, was trying to infiltrate the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Sent back to Brazil, he was convicted of using forgery, but denied being a spy. Russia alleges, without convincing many people, that he is a drug trafficker and requests his extradition.
Dance lessons as cover
In November of the same year, another Russian, posing as a Brazilian researcher, was arrested in Norway. Finally, in 2023, a Brazilian woman reports the disappearance of her companion. This owner of a printer shop would also be an undercover Russian spy who, sensing trouble, would have slipped away before being discovered.
Higher education, apartment purchase, marriage or even dance lessons, the spies would have patiently built their false identity over several years. But Brazil does not seem to be their objective: it is rather a starting point to then carry out their missions in other countries. Brasilia has, in fact, a tradition of avoiding getting involved in major international conflicts, and a Brazilian passport does not generally make you tick at the borders. But above all, the Russian services perceived a flaw in the issuance of local identity documents.
A survey of the extent of the network
In fact, the documents seized from the spies are not false papers. The problem comes upstream: it is very easy to obtain a birth certificate for an adult in Brazil. And once this act in hand, recovering a perfectly legitimate Brazilian passport is a simple formality.
Despite some improvements, the system remains vulnerable. But thanks to a USB key belonging to one of the spies, the Brazilians are now investigating the extent of this network. In cooperation with various foreign intelligence services, they hope to identify new Russian spies who have passed through the country, or are still present in Brazil.