According to the NYT, a investigation overthrew scheme that turned the country into a forged identity creation center for Moscow agents
A confidential investigation by the Brazilian Federal Police dismantled a Russian espionage network that formed secret agents with false identities in Brazil. The information was published on Wednesday (21.MAI.2025) by the American newspaper
According to the publication, at least 9 Russian intelligence officers operated with forged RGs and CPFs. Spies took advantage of the Brazilian Civil Registry system for birth certificates with which other official documents were obtained, including passports.
The investigation, appointed “East Operation” began in April 2022, when CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) warned the Brazilian authorities about Sergey Cherkasov, a spy adopting the false name of Victor Muller Ferreira. He was barred while trying to enter the Netherlands to intern at the TPI (International Criminal Court) while the US agency investigated Russia’s war crimes against Ukraine.
One of the Russian agents was Artem Shmyrev, who lived in Rio de Janeiro under the identity of Gerhard Daniel Campos Wittich. He managed a 3D printing company and had a relationship with a Brazilian. Other identified spies include a presumed jeweler, a researcher and a model.
The Russian operation was not intended to spy on Brazil, but to use the country as a platform to create reliable identities that would allow agents to act later in the United States, Europe or the Middle East. After the Ukraine invasion of Russia in 2022, Western intelligence services intensified global cooperation against Russian spies.
Back in Russia
Still according to the Times, a Most agents managed to escape before being captured, probably returning to Russia. As a strategy for “burn” Permanently the identities of these spies, the Federal Police issued Interpol’s blue alerts (Interpol notifications used to locate people of interest, without arrest order), circulating their data to 196 countries.
Only Cherkasov remains arrested in Brazil, convicted of falsifying documents with a reduced sentence to 5 years. The Russian government tried to extradite him by stating that he would be a sought after drug trafficker, but the Brazilian authorities rejected the request.
