Brazil’s Concern Over Influx of Russian Spies Obtaining Brazilian Passports

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Brazilian authorities are concerned that their country has become a “sanctuary” for undercover Russian agents who receive Brazilian passports and are subsequently sent to the West, reports The Wall Street Journal.

According to the publication, the investigators who are investigating this situation believe that Russian spies with Brazilian passports may be hiding in the country or around the world.

The reason for the investigation was several cases of detentions in Western countries of Russians who had documents of Brazilian citizens with them. In particular, in the fall of 2022, a researcher who arrived from Brazil under the program of the local University of Tromso was detained in Norway. At the same time, the Norwegian police were sure that the man was actually a Russian citizen and was working undercover for Russian intelligence.

In the summer of the same year, a Russian citizen, Sergei Cherkasov, was detained in Brazil, whose extradition is sought by the United States. According to the US authorities, while in Washington disguised as Brazilian student Victor Muller Ferreira, he collaborated with Russian intelligence services, then left the United States and in April 2022 tried to get a job at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, but was refused. He then returned to Brazil, where he is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence for forgery.

Another case reported by the WSJ involves a man named Gerhard Daniel Campos Wittich, who lived in Rio de Janeiro for many years and posed as a Brazilian. At the end of 2022, he went abroad and disappeared, the publication reports.

According to the newspaper, these three cases demonstrate gaps in the security system when working with documents in Brazil, which can be exploited by spies. Law enforcement authorities say that a person can obtain a Brazilian identity card and passport with only a birth certificate.