As Federal Police agents unveiled a Kremlin espionage operation in Brazil, they came across a mystery: How did so many infiltrated Russian spies get seemingly authentic Brazilian birth certificates? Police hoped to find that the Russians had forged documents or bribed municipal officials to create them and insert them into the registration as if they were from the 1980s and 1990s.
But when the forensic report was delivered in April, according to a high Brazilian employee, the analysis suggested something completely different. The documents did not seem forged. And, most surprisingly, they were not even new. Brazilian counter -decline officers are now considering a more audacious possibility, one that echoes the Cold War.
Investigators suspect that KGB agents, working disguised in Brazil during the last years of the Soviet Union, may have registered birth certificates in names of fictitious newborns-expecting a future spy generation to claim them and continue the fight against the West. If this is true, it would represent an extraordinary level of prediction and commitment to mission by intelligence officers in a period of great Upheaval and unpredictability in the world.
In the late 1980s, the communist bloc began to collapse, along with the ideological divisions that defined global politics – and the mission of Moscow spies – for decades. Almost overnight, the KGB, once an unparalleled force in global affairs, was deprived of its central purpose, the conflict with the West, and would soon be dissolved completely. But such thought ahead of its time aligns with the culture of Russian espionage, which, contrary to the West, often values long -term creative planning over immediate convenience. And in a country that is uniquely committed to placing officers on deep infiltration missions, getting a birth certificates for a long time is a priority.
“It’s exactly the kind of thing they would do,” said Edward Lucas, a British author and expert in Russian intelligence services. “This fits with the meticulous and general attention they dedicate to the creation of these identities.” However, in interviews, intelligence experts, and officers of various western intelligence services have failed to point out any other similar example in the history of Russian spy. Some expressed skepticism about the hypothesis.
Even though Brazilian researchers are still not sure what to do with the results of their forensic analysis. The investigation continues. The Brazilian courts ordered the birth certificates of the suspected Russians to operate as infiltrated agents to be kept secret, so The New York Times could not analyze them independently. Creating a convincing coverage identity is perhaps the most important work of a spy.
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For Russia’s deep infiltration operatives, known as illegal, a bullet -proof background can be the difference between a heroic career and a total failure. Unlike the West, where intelligence officers can adopt false identities for specific missions or periods of service, these spies should often live their coverage for decades. Through their investigation, the Brazilian authorities interrupted what was essentially a assembly line for the creation of false identities.
For years, and perhaps decades, Russia’s operatives have traveled to Brazil, not to spy, but to become Brazilians. They got passports, created business, made friends and fell in love. So when their roofs were virtually unobeversable, they should leave for other countries to drive espionage. But the first crucial step was to get an authentic birth certificate. Historically, Moscow espionage services devoted a lot of energy to this task.
In his memories, Oleg Gordievsky, a former KGB officer who became a British agent, described his incessant search for proper birth records for use by illegal operatives. He told how, while being based on Denmark in the 1970s, he tried to recruit a priest who had access to a church record book, in which births and deaths were inscribed. “If we could have access to books,” he wrote, “we could create any number of Danish identities.” Whoever has planted the birth certificates in Brazil paid great attention to the details.
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“The ink is normal; the page is ok,” said the Brazilian senior researcher. “There is no tampering with books.” Like other officers, he called for anonymity due to investigation ongoing. Although the documents seemed legitimate, the information in them was false. Authorities found that parents listed in birth certificates or did not exist or have never had children whose names corresponded to those of the documents.
A birth certificate, the investigators found it, contained a rare slip – or perhaps a cunning flashing of a generation of spies to the next. According to a Western intelligence officer, one of the parents listed in the document was the false Brazilian name of another deep -infiltration Russian operative that had worked in South America and Europe a generation before.
Andrei Soldatov, an author who is one of Russia’s leading experts in intelligence services, said he has never heard of officials planting birth certificates so advance. But he said that would have been rewarded. “If you can contribute to the illegal program, you put yourself in a really good position in the eyes of your superiors,” he said. “That would be really good for your career.”
