From left to right: Sergey Cherkasov, Artem Shmryev and Mikahil Mikushin. The three, according to investigations, were Russian spies who used Brazilian documents as part of their disguises Social networks / Reproduction Brazil decided to expel Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov — an alleged Russian spy who has been imprisoned in Brasília since 2022 — from the country and send him back to Russia, according to a decision published on Monday (6/7) in the Official Gazette of the Union. The measure, however, will only be carried out after the end of the sentence to which he was sentenced in the Brazil or upon release by the Judiciary. There is still no forecast as to when the decision will be implemented. The suspicion that Brazil was being used as a kind of "nursery" for Russian spies resurfaced last year after the publication of a report by the North American newspaper The New York Times. According to the newspaper, an investigation led by the Brazilian Federal Police identified at least nine alleged Russian spies who used Brazilian documents as part of their disguises. The information was confirmed at the time by BBC News Brasil. Part of this case was revealed by BBC News Brasil in reports between 2022 and 2024. Based on documents and testimonies collected over months, BBC News Brasil revealed, for example, how Russia orchestrated a diplomatic operation to try to remove one of its alleged spies from prison and take him back to his home country. Sources linked to the investigation told BBC News Brasil that, of the nine alleged Russian spies identified until last year, only one remains on Brazilian soil: Sergey Cherkasov. And it was with him that this intricate network of disguises came to light and began to collapse. A network that, according to investigations, used unusual disguises. One of the alleged spies would have acted as the owner of a jewelry store in Brasília, another would have been a student passionate about forró while another would have worked as a model. Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov introduced himself as Victor Muller Ferreira and had applied for an unpaid internship at the International Criminal Court. He is suspected of being a Russian spy. United States Department of Justice/ Reproduction The discovery In April 2022, Sergey Cherkasov was detained in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, when trying to enter the country and sent back to Brazil. He introduced himself as Brazilian Victor Muller Ferreira and had been approved for an internship program at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Investigations conducted by the Dutch, Americans and Brazilians indicate that Cherkasov was an agent of the GRU, one of the intelligence services of the Russian Armed Forces. Returned to Brazil, Cherkasov was arrested, prosecuted and sentenced to 15 years in prison in Brazil for using a false document. His sentence, however, was reduced to five years. He is now imprisoned in a federal penitentiary in Brasília. In the process, he admitted to having passed himself off as Brazilian, but always denied being a spy. A few months later, in November 2022, Norwegian police arrested another "Brazilian". His name was José de Assis Giammaria, but authorities in the European country claim that his name was actually Mikhail Mikushin and that he was a Russian spy infiltrated at a university in the Arctic region, on the border between Norway and Russia. The third case emerged shortly afterwards, at the end of 2022, when a Brazilian woman reported the disappearance of her boyfriend, also "Brazilian" Gerhard Daniel Campos. Authorities, however, claimed that Campos was actually another Russian spy named Artem Shmyrev. He left Brazil shortly before the Federal Police launched an operation to arrest him and was never seen again. Last year's New York Times report listed six other people who allegedly used Brazilian documents as part of their disguises: Yekaterina Leonidovna Danilova, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Danilov, Olga Igorevna Tyutereva, Aleksandr Andreyevich Utekhin, Irina Alekseyevna Antonova and Roman Olegovich Koval. Utekhin, for example, according to investigations, disguised himself in Brasília as a jewelry businessman. Another alleged spy, whose Brazilian name would be Maria Isabel Moresco Garcia, would act as a model. According to Federal Police investigations, none of the alleged spies identified so far collected information about Brazil. The passage through the country, according to what was discovered, was part of a strategy to create a disguise solid enough to not attract attention in the countries where, in fact, the agents were supposed to carry out their missions. Discreet, well-behaved and a voracious reader: the life of the Russian spy arrested in Brasília Cherkasov, for example, passed through Brazil, but also lived in Ireland and the United States, where he lived just a few kilometers from the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In March 2023, BBC News Brasil revealed how Cherkasov had, according to investigations, "heated" Brazilian documents with the help of a notary's employee. According to documents obtained by BBC News Brasil, Cherkasov allegedly offered a US$400 necklace for the employee to help him. There was no indication, however, that she knew that Cherkasov was a spy for the Russian government. Over the past few years, the Russian Embassy in Brazil has never responded to requests for response made by BBC News Brasil regarding the case. The closest the Russian government came to admitting that someone from this group of nine people was, in fact, a spy was when Mikhail Mikushin was included in a prisoner exchange agreement between Russia and the United States, in August 2024. Federal Police found several documents including passports with Sergey Cherkasov. Some of them would be used, according to investigations, in the process he was taking to obtain Portuguese citizenship Federal Court of São Paulo The 'illegals' Sergey Cherkasov, Mikhail Mikushin, Artem Shmyrev and six others identified by the Brazilian PF were, it is suspected, part of a group of infiltrated secret agents adopted by Russia since the country was still part of the Soviet Union and made famous by television drama, as in the series The Americans. They are known as "illegals". They not only change their name, but adopt new nationalities, professions, personalities, hobbies and interests and even create family ties and friendships over years or even decades. It is common for them to form couples during training. The process of working abroad for decades undercover can cause immense tension, and so having a partner who knows your work is often seen as an advantage. Hundreds of Russian diplomats have been expelled since the invasion of Ukraine, many considered spies. In the cases detected in Brazil, investigations to date show how the alleged spies tried to remain above suspicion. Cherkasov, for example, took forró classes while he lived in São Paulo, according to Brazilian investigations. Furthermore, according to the FBI, Cherkasov even asked his superiors for permission to marry a woman who had no training as an intelligence officer. "I said that if I don't get married this year, we will definitely be finished. The woman couldn't take it anymore," Cherkasov reportedly said in a conversation found by investigators. Still according to the FBI, the fact that Cherkasov would have to ask for permission to marry would show the level of control that his superiors would have over his personal life. Shmyrev, in turn, would have maintained a relationship with a Brazilian woman until shortly before he disappeared, in January 2023. In Rio de Janeiro, according to investigators, he would be known for having a 3D printing company that would have performed services for public bodies such as the Army, Navy and Ministry of Culture commands. According to these reports, despite his relationship with his Brazilian girlfriend, he was married to another alleged Russian spy named Irina Romanova, who lived in Greece under the false name of Maria Tsalla and who also maintained a romantic relationship in the country. She also disappeared, and suspicions are that the two fled together. "Maria's" partner in Athens was apparently informed by her via text message that she was leaving. Irina is believed to have been recalled by the SVR for fear of being identified. It is believed that Greek authorities were observing or investigating her. She left leaving her shop and her cat behind which may indicate the haste with which she left. In recent years, intelligence officials believe the GRU has become more active - and aggressive. The GRU is suspected of having sent a team of agents under false identities to kill Sergei Skripal in 2018, in Salisbury, United Kingdom. Russia, however, denies its involvement in this case. The agents' main job, however, is to collect information and carry out activities in support of the Russian Armed Forces. Typically, when they are caught, the Russian government works to get them back to Russia through some kind of deal - usually a spy swap. This is what happened to a group of Russians arrested in the USA in 2010, who were exchanged for agents detained in Russian prisons for espionage. Russian President Vladimir Putin talks to representatives of international news agencies during the International Economic Forum in Saint Petersburg, Russia. AP/Dmitri Lovetsky But why Brazil? Members of the Brazilian intelligence community, investigators and people who know the notary registration system in Brazil highlight three reasons that may have led Brazil to be one of the countries chosen by Russia as a "nursery" for its spies. weaknesses in document issuance and control systems in Brazil; the country's history of non-involvement in international conflicts; mixed population In Cherkasov's case, his certificate would have been issued in April 1989 at a registry office in Rio de Janeiro. It was from this certificate, according to investigations, that he was able to obtain an identity card, national driver's license, passport and even the Unified Health System (SUS) card. In Mikushin's case, his birth certificate was issued at a registry office in the city of Padre Bernardo, in the interior of Goiás, a municipality with just over 35 thousand inhabitants. With the document in hand, he would have managed to pose as a Brazilian university student and completed his undergraduate and master's degrees at two different Canadian universities, before leaving for his last mission: working with a group of Norwegian researchers who study threats and hybrid wars. "When we found out about the case, we went to the registry office's books and verified that the certificate is original and that it is in the exact order of issuance. We were unable to find out how it ended up in the hands of this person and how he later obtained all the other documents," the official at Padre Bernardo's civil registry office, Eloália Nunes Ferreira, told BBC News Brasil in May 2023. A member of the Brazilian intelligence community told the reporter in a confidential manner that the certificates used by the two alleged spies identified so far are, in fact, materially true. This means that they were not forged, erased or subjected to any type of tampering. According to this source, this would indicate that these certificates were, in fact, issued by Brazilian notary offices or notaries, but it is still not known exactly how the Russians managed to obtain them. Battle for spy Cherkasov's arrest in Brazil has placed the country in the midst of a dispute between the United States and Russia over the fate of the first alleged spy identified in Brazil. In August 2022, a few months after his arrest in Brazil, the Russian government requested Cherkasov's extradition to his home country. The country, as expected, did not declare him a spy. The request alleges that Cherkasov was, in reality, a drug trafficker wanted in Russia. Based on this request, the STF authorized Cherkasov's handover to the Russian government, but the handover has not yet taken place because the Court conditioned his departure at the end of other investigations conducted by the Federal Police into his activities in Brazil. On the other hand, the United States government also requested Cherkasov's extradition alleging that he had acted illegally as an intelligence agent during the years he lived in that country. In 2023, BBC News Brasil reported that the Brazilian and North American governments discussed a possible agreement providing for Cherkasov's handover if the United States complied with an extradition request made by Brazil against blogger Allan dos Santos, supporter of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and investigated in Brazil for attacks on authorities. The agreement did not go ahead and, in March 2024, the United States denied the blogger's extradition. One of the pieces of information revealed by The New York Times and confirmed by BBC News Brasil was a strategy used by the Brazilian Federal Police and Uruguayan authorities that, in practice, made it difficult for this group of spies to operate in the future. Brazil and Uruguay issued alerts to Interpol's 196 countries requesting information on five of the eight alleged spies. The data is now in the Interpol database and can be used by police and immigration authorities around the world to identify the group's possible next stop. Victor Müller Ferreira was the name used by Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov in Brazil Reproduction