Russia used Brazil to create deep cover spies

Artem Shmyrev hurt everyone. The Russian intelligence officer seemed to have built the perfect coverage identity. He managed a successful 3D printing company and shared a high -end apartment in Rio de Janeiro with his Brazilian girlfriend and a Maine Maine and White Cat.

But the most important thing, he had an authentic birth certificate and a passport that cemented his alias as Gerhard Daniel Campos Wittich, a 34 -year -old Brazilian citizen.

After six years, he was low, he was impatient to start a real spy work.

“No one wants to feel loser,” he wrote in a text message in 2021 to his Russian wife, who was also an intelligence agent, using imperfect English. “This is why I continue to work and hope.”

He was not alone. For years, a New York Times survey revealed, Russia used Brazil as a launch for its most elite intelligence agents, called illegal. In a daring and large -scale operation, spies have lost their Russian past. They launched companies, made friends and had lovers – events which, for many years, have become the constituent elements of entirely new identities.

The main Russian spy operations have been discovered in the past, including in the United States in 2010. It was different. The goal was not to spy on Brazil, but to become Brazilian. Once masked in credible back stories, they leave for the United States, Europe or the Middle East and would begin to work seriously.

The Russians essentially transformed Brazil into a mounting chain for deep covering agents like Mr. Shmyrev.