The Minister of Justice and Public Security, Ricardo Lewandowski, said on Thursday (22) that there is no concrete evidence of a large-scale operation of Russian spies-or other nationalities-acting in Brazil. According to him, there is a single case in progress, under the analysis of the Federal Supreme Court (STF).
“There is an isolated case that is under the responsibility of the Supreme Court. When the judiciary decides, the government will make the decision corresponding to the Court’s decision,” Lewandowski said during a press conference after the 4th Interpol Meeting for South American Police Chiefs in Brasilia.
Also attending the interview were Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues and Interpol Secretary-General Valdecy Urquiza. Rodrigues reiterated that the case of espionage is the responsibility of the judiciary and that the PF acts in collaboration with international authorities.
PF monitors Russian performance since 2022
Despite the minister’s speech, Federal Police investigations indicate that Brazil may have been systematically used by Russia as the basis for forming intelligence agents since at least 2022. The theme has gained a new breath after the newspaper The New York Times affirm, in a report published on Wednesday (21), that the.
According to NOWRussian secret services operated in Brazil through agents known as “illegal”, infiltrated under civil disguises. They created companies, cultivated personal relationships, and built new identities, away from any direct association with the Vladimir Putin government. At least nine of these spies would have acted with false Brazilian documents, according to investigations.
Among the names cited is Serguei Tcherkasov, arrested in Brazil after being deported from the Netherlands in 2022, while trying to infiltrate the International Criminal Court. The STF, in a decision by Minister Edson Fachin in December 2023, denied the release of Tchherkasov and conditioned eventual extradition to the completion of investigations in the country.
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Brazil’s attractiveness for espionage
Brazilian authorities point to several factors that facilitate the performance of foreign agents in the country. One is the ease of obtaining official documents such as birth certificates and passports from false identities. The Brazilian passport, well accepted globally, is also attractive to espionage actions.
The Federal Police identified financial movements linked to Tchherkasov who led to suspicions about members of the Russian government established in Brazil. Already in April 2024, a new investigation revealed that ABIN (Brazilian Intelligence Agency) discovered another Russian spy acting under diplomatic coverage at the Russian embassy in Brasilia.
The agent, Serguei Alexandrovitch Chumilov, left the country after being identified by the Brazilian counterintelligence. According to reports, he was active to recruit Brazilians as informants and was linked to a cultural entity accused of espionage actions in the United States and Europe.
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Government awaits the Supreme Court
For now, the Brazilian government avoids treating the issue as a coordinated international operation, choosing to classify episodes as punctuals. According to Lewandowski, any measures will depend on the ongoing judicial deliberation.
