Russia used Brazil as base to create ‘spy factory’ that was used in missions to United States, Europe and Middle East

An investigation by the New York Times revealed that Russia turned Brazil into a strategic base for its program of high-level undercover agents, known as illegals. These agents, trained to assume false identities for years, used the country as a jumping-off point to build credible lives before being sent on missions in the United States, Europe and the Middle East.

A prominent case is that of Artem Shmyrev, a Russian intelligence officer who lived for six years in Rio de Janeiro under the alias of Gerhard Daniel Campos Wittich, a 34-year-old Brazilian citizen. Shmyrev operated a successful 3D printing business, lived in a luxurious apartment with his Brazilian girlfriend and a cat, and possessed authentic documents, including a birth certificate and a Brazilian passport. However, he was eager to start his real spying job. In a 2021 text message to his Russian wife, also a spy, he wrote: "No one wants to feel like a loser. That's why I keep working and waiting."

A "spy factory"

The investigation found that Russia used Brazil as a "spy factory." Agents abandoned their Russian pasts to build new identities, opening businesses, forming friendships and entering into romantic relationships that, over the years, created compelling life stories. Unlike previous operations, such as the one dismantled in the United States in 2010, the objective was not to spy on Brazil, but to turn the agents into credible Brazilian citizens and then send them to countries such as the United States, Europe or the Middle East.

Among the spies identified were a jeweler, a blonde, blue-eyed model, a student admitted to an American university, a researcher who worked in Norway, and a couple who moved to Portugal. At least nine Russian officials operated under Brazilian identities, six of whom had not been publicly identified until now. The investigation covered at least eight countries, with information from intelligence services of the United States, Israel, The Netherlands, Uruguay and other Western allies.

For three years, counterintelligence agents of the Brazilian Federal Police worked to dismantle this network in the operation known as Operation East. From their modern headquarters in Brasilia, they analyzed millions of identity records, looking for patterns in birth certificates, passports, driver's licenses and social security numbers. They discovered "ghosts": people with legitimate documents but no record of living in Brazil, suddenly appearing as adults amassing identity papers.

The CIA, key to dismantling the spy ring

The case began to unravel in April 2022, following an alert from the CIA about Sergey Cherkasov, a Russian spy traveling on a Brazilian passport under the name Victor Muller Ferreira. Cherkasov, who had earned a postgraduate degree at Johns Hopkins University and was seeking an internship at the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands, was arrested in São Paulo for using false documents. Although he had an authentic passport, voter's card and military service certificate, agents discovered that his birth certificate was fraudulent: it indicated that he was born in 1989 to a Brazilian mother who died four years later, but his family confirmed that she never had a child.

The Russian operation exploited a vulnerability in the Brazilian system, which allows birth certificates to be issued in rural areas with only the declaration of two witnesses, without hospital verification. With a birth certificate, the spies obtained other documents, such as passports, which allowed them to travel without restrictions. Brazil, with its multi-ethnic population and high-value passport, was ideal for these agents, who could go unnoticed with European features and slight accents.

The Brazilian investigation dealt a devastating blow to the Russian illegal aliens program. At least two spies were arrested, while others, like Shmyrev, fled to Russia. Shmyrev, who reportedly escaped to Malaysia days before police discovered his identity, left behind electronic devices and $12,000 in cash, suggesting he planned to return, but never did. Others, such as a couple operating as Manuel Francisco Steinbruck Pereira and Adriana Carolina Costa Silva Pereira, moved to Portugal in 2018 and disappeared. One spy, Maria Luisa Dominguez Cardozo, obtained a Uruguayan passport, while another couple, Federico Luiz Gonzalez Rodriguez Rodriguez and Maria Isabel Moresco Garcia, also fled.

The Brazilian agents shared their findings with international intelligence services, identifying real names such as Vladimir Aleksandrovich Danilov,Yekaterina Leonidovna Danilova, Roman Olegovich Koval, Irina Alekseyevna Antonova and Olga Igorevna Tyutereva. To expose the spies, Brazil issued Interpol blue notices, sharing names, photos and fingerprints, which rendered these agents useless for future missions. Cherkasov, the only one still in prison, was sentenced to five years for document forgery.

A betrayal

The Russian operation in Brazil, which exploited the country's historical neutrality with Russia, was seen as a betrayal. The investigation, led by Michael Schwirtz and Jane Bradley, exposes how Russia honed its illegal aliens program, using Brazil as a springboard to infiltrate the West, until Operation East dismantled it.