By Fabio Serapião
The three cases of alleged Russian spies operating worldwide with a Brazilian identity have set the Federal Police (PF) on alert as early as 2022 and raised suspicion of the country’s use of a systematic way to train illegal agents of the Russian government.
Sergei Tcherkasov, arrested in the Netherlands and sent to Brazil in May; Mikhail Mikushin, arrested in Norway in October; and the alleged spy, identified by Greek authorities by the surname Chmirev used a Brazilian identity to travel the world working for the Russian intelligence services, according to the investigations opened by the countries.
They became Viktor Muller Ferreira, José Assis Giammaria, and Gehard Daniel Campos Wittich by falsifying documents.
For the investigators, the ease of getting a birth certificate in Brazil and other documents until they get a passport is an attraction for the spy agencies.
In addition, the good reception of the Brazilian passport in the world is considered an important factor for the increase in the number of cases of illegal spies whose identities have been “warmed up” in Brazil.
As in Tcherkasov’s case, the Federal Police intelligence sector exchanged information with authorities in other countries and the United States during the arrests.
The Russian allegedly got his documents by corrupting a notary public.
The relationship between the two is investigated in the inquiry opened to investigate money laundering and corruption.
Folha de S. Paulo [Brazilian newspaper] showed that the Federal Police mapped cash transactions received by the alleged spy and reached members of the Russian government based in Brazil.
For this, investigators crossed images from the internal circuit of a bank branch in Rio and records of a person who visited the Russian in prison.
Two men, identified as Aleksei Matveev and Ivan Chetverikov, are cited by PF as suspected members of the Russian consulate in the country and deposited values for Tcherkasov.
The investigation of Tcherkasov was left to Brazilian authorities, but in the other two cases, investigations were opened in the countries where they were discovered.
The emergence of these illegal spies has stirred intelligence agencies around the world.
Folha de S. Paulo found that US authorities had reported to the Brazilian authorities that this is the largest case of spies known as “illegals” since 2010.
This was when the FBI, the US Federal Police, launched Operation Ghost Stories against 10 Russian spies who were part of a network operating in areas of the country.
They were arrested and then exchanged in a US deal with Russia.
The case became a TV series and involved spy couples and other Russians responsible for infiltrating various sectors of American society.
On Monday (3), the British newspaper The Guardian revealed the story of a third alleged Russian intelligence agent who allegedly lived for years in Rio de Janeiro, even buying a property near the American consulate in the city.
Gehard Daniel Campos Wittich – or a Russian spy with the surname Chmirev, according to a high Greek authority – allegedly lived for at least five years in Rio under a false identity.
He presented himself as the son of an Austrian father and a Brazilian mother raised by his grandparents in Vienna.
Folha de S. Paulo showed that Wittich founded a 3D printing company in Rio de Janeiro that received R$27,000 from Brazilian federal government agencies between 2020 and 2022 for graphic services.
His main client in the federal government was the Navy.
In 2020, the Marine Corps Technology Center placed three orders with the company totaling R$14,300.
The Army Police also requested an 80 cm image of a snake, the unit’s mascot, for R$3,500.
The Ministry of Culture placed the biggest order: 500 bungs for rolls of cinematographic film for R$8,500.
The real identity of the alleged spy was discovered after he told his Brazilian girlfriend – who did not know about his activities for the Russian government – that he would travel to a work event in Malaysia.
As he stopped contacting his girlfriend, she started a campaign on social networks and asked for help from the Brazilian Embassy in Malaysia to try to locate him.
The clue about Wittich came from Athens, where Greek authorities informed him that he was married to a Russian spy who worked in the European country and had also disappeared.
According to The Guardian, the authorities following the case believe that Wittich and his wife returned to Russia because of the risk of exposing their identities.
In October 2022, it was revealed that security authorities in Norway also arrested another alleged Russian spy who claimed to be a Brazilian academic.
The man identified himself as José Assis Giammaria and worked at the University of Tromsø (north of the country).
Before arriving in Norway, Giammaria had spent years studying at universities in Canada on topics related to security in the Arctic.
Information gathered by the Brazilian Federal Police shows that he got a CPF [individual registration] only at 22, considered late, and a clue to document forgery.
His father had no record from Brazil, and his mother had a CPF, currently suspended.
In 2013, he took out his Brazilian passport, and three years later, an entry into Brazil from Canada and his departure to Toronto were registered by the PF.
With information from Folha de S. Paulo