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Russian Agents Pretended to Be Brazilians to Obtain Valid Passports and Circulate Around the World; Federal Police Disbanded Scheme After American Intelligence Alert
According to a report by the American newspaper The New York Times, for years, Russian agents allegedly posed as Brazilians and circulated freely in the country. The aim was not to monitor the national territory per se, but to create false identities and use passports issued here as a means of access to other nations.
A secret investigation by the Federal Police, called “Operation East,” revealed how this scheme operated.
According to the report from The New York Times, the operation shed light on how the so-called “spy factory” worked.
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According to findings published by the American newspaper The New York Times, the Russians managed to obtain authentic documents in the names of non-existent people. This way, they erased their pasts and reinforced the disguise of legitimate citizens.
Strategy and Advantages
The preference for Brazilian identities had clear reasons. The national passport is accepted in many countries without the need for a visa, which facilitates international travel. Furthermore, Brazil’s ethnic diversity helped the infiltrators reduce suspicion.
To lend more credibility to the disguise, some even opened businesses, while others built emotional relationships with Brazilians. Thus, they created an apparent life that reinforced the fictitious identity.
However, the meticulous operation was eventually noticed by counterintelligence. An analysis of document patterns and inconsistencies in certificates was the starting point for tracking the agents.
The Decisive Alert
The trigger for expanding the investigations came in April 2022 when the CIA sent an alert to the Federal Police. The American agency identified a man who was attempting an internship at the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands while the court was investigating war crimes in Ukraine.
The suspect was using a Brazilian passport in the name of Victor Muller Ferreira. However, the CIA informed that he was actually Sergey Cherkasov, a member of the Russian military intelligence service.
His entry into the European country was denied, and he subsequently returned to Brazil. Without immediate evidence, the Federal Police merely monitored his movements until obtaining an arrest warrant for using false documents.
The Fraud of Victor Muller
Cherkasov had documents on various fronts: voter registration, military service certificate, and even a birth certificate. However, the investigation revealed inconsistencies.
The birth record indicated that Victor Muller was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1989, the child of a Brazilian mother who had already passed away. Upon locating the family, the Federal Police found that the woman had never had children.
This discovery opened the door to the search for other “ghosts” with similarly fabricated documents.
More Agents Identified
Among the cases found was that of Artem Shmyrev, who used the false name Gerhard Daniel Campos Wittich, an alleged businessman in the 3D printing sector in Rio de Janeiro.
He was married to Irina Shmyreva, also identified as a spy and already exposed by Greek authorities. The exchanged messages between the two helped advance Brazilian investigations.
Before being arrested, Shmyrev left Brazil for Malaysia at the end of 2022. Although he had a return ticket, he never came back.
In his residence, electronic devices containing personal data, messages, and about 12 thousand dollars in cash were left behind.
Partial Result
At least nine Russian agents were detected. Two were arrested while the others left the national territory. Nevertheless, the disguises were revealed.
Although Brazil maintains diplomatic and commercial relations with Moscow, authorities classified the infiltration as a betrayal. Thus, they opted to notify Interpol to expose the infiltrated individuals.
Communications containing names, photographs, and fingerprints of the agents were sent to the 196 member countries of the organization. Uruguay also issued similar advisories.
Conviction and Dispute
The only arrested individual is Sergey Cherkasov. Convicted for forgery, he received a 15-year sentence, later reduced to five.
The Russian government requested his extradition, claiming he was a wanted trafficker. However, Brazilian authorities decided to keep him detained in Brasília to deepen investigations.
This decision was made due to suspicions of involvement in trafficking-related crimes. For this reason, his stay was extended.
International Reach
According to information provided to the New York Times, the investigation received support from at least eight countries. The United States, Israel, the Netherlands, and Uruguay, among others, supplied data for the operation.
Based on this material, the report revealed photographs of six Russians who passed through Brazil using false identities: Yekaterina Leonidovna Danilova, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Danilov, Olga Igorevna Tyutereva, Aleksandr Andreyevich Utekhin, Irina Alekseyevna Antonova, and Roman Olegovich Koval.
Outcome
The Russian strategy of creating Brazilian characters was effective for years. However, with the joint actions of international bodies and the persistence of the Federal Police, the disguise was dismantled.
Although some agents managed to escape, the public exposure of the identities makes any new infiltration more difficult.
Therefore, Operation East marks an episode in which cooperation among countries and meticulous counterintelligence work succeeded in neutralizing a long-term scheme.
And, even though most have fled, the revelation of the frauds served as a warning to the world about the reach of Russian covert operations.
With information from CNN.
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