The Spy Factory
Russia Used Brazil to Create Deep-Cover Spies
How Russia’s Spy Factory Assembled Moles in Brazil
Russia’s intelligence services turned Brazil into an assembly line for deep-cover operatives. A team of federal agents from the South American country has been quietly dismantling it.
By Michael Schwirtz and Jane Bradley
Russia used Brazil as a launchpad for its most elite intelligence officers, known as illegals. In an audacious and far-reaching operation, the spies shed their Russian pasts. They started businesses, made friends and had love affairs — events that, over many years, became the building blocks of entirely new identities.
Major Russian spy operations have been uncovered in the past, including in the United States in 2010. This was different. The goal was not to spy on Brazil, but to become Brazilian. Once cloaked in credible back stories, they would set off for the United States, Europe or the Middle East and begin working in earnest. The Russians essentially turned Brazil into an assembly line for deep-cover operatives like Mr. Shmyrev...
How had a Russian spy obtained genuine documents under a fake name? Most important, the police wondered, if one spy could do it, why couldn’t others?
Federal agents began searching for what they called “ghosts”: people with legitimate birth certificates, who spent their lives without any record of actually being in Brazil and who appeared suddenly as adults rapidly collecting identity documents...
While all spy services employ undercover operatives, most rely on networks of local informants to do the grunt work of intelligence collection. Russia is unique. Dating back to the earliest years of the Soviet Union, deep-cover officers have committed to a lifetime of service, living and working as completely different people...
Brazil seemed an ideal place for Mr. Putin’s chosen spies to build their lore. The Brazilian passport is one of the world’s most useful, allowing visa-free travel to nearly as many countries as the American one...
For the whole saga:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/21/world/americas/russia-brazil-spies-deep-cover.html