Born to Spy: The KGB's Identity Network from the Past

As federal police agents uncovered a Kremlin spy network in Brazil, they faced a mystery: how did so many Russian agents with false identities manage to obtain seemingly authentic Brazilian birth certificates?

Police expected to find that the Russians had forged the documents or bribed municipal officials to create them and enter them into the registers as if they were from the 1980s and 1990s.

But when the forensic report arrived in April, according to a senior Brazilian official, the analysis suggested something entirely different. The documents did not appear to be forged. And, most surprising of all, they were not even new.

Brazilian counterintelligence officials are now considering another possibility, one with echoes of the Cold War. Investigators suspect that KGB operatives, working under false identities in Brazil during the final years of the Soviet Union, may have applied for birth certificates in the names of fictitious newborns - in the hope that a future generation of spies would one day take over and continue the fight against the West.

If true, it would represent a remarkable level of foresight and commitment to the mission by intelligence officers at a time of great global turmoil and uncertainty. By the late 1980s, the communist bloc was beginning to crumble, along with the ideological divisions that had shaped global politics for decades—and the mission of Moscow's spies.

The KGB, once an unrivaled force in world affairs, was almost overnight deprived of its primary purpose, conflict with the West, and was soon completely disbanded.

But such strategic thinking would be in keeping with the culture of Russian espionage, which, unlike Western espionage, often values ​​creative long-term planning over immediate pragmatism. And in a country uniquely dedicated to deploying operatives on missions under false identities, obtaining birth certificates has long been a priority.

“That’s exactly what they would do,” said Edward Lucas, a British journalist and author who specializes in Russian intelligence. “It fits with their meticulous and generational commitment to creating these identities.”

Yet in interviews, intelligence experts and officials from several Western agencies could not cite any similar examples in the history of Russian espionage. Some expressed skepticism about the hypothesis. Even Brazilian investigators themselves are still unsure how to interpret the findings of the forensic analysis. The investigation continues.

Brazilian courts have ordered that the birth certificates of Russian citizens suspected of acting as agents under false identities remain secret, so The New York Times has been unable to independently analyze them.

Creating a convincing false identity is perhaps the most important task of a spy. For elite Russian agents known as "illegals," a flawlessly fabricated biography can mean the difference between a successful career and utter ruin. Unlike in the West, where intelligence officers often use false identities for single missions or time-limited assignments, these spies live under those identities, often for decades.

Such strategic thinking would be in line with the culture of Russian espionage, which, unlike Western espionage, often values ​​creative long-term planning over momentary pragmatism.

Through their investigation, Brazilian authorities uncovered what was essentially a fake identity production line. For years, perhaps decades, Russian operatives had been coming to Brazil not to spy, but to become Brazilians. They would obtain passports, start businesses, make friends, and fall in love. Then, once their fake identities were virtually unchallenged, they would travel to other countries to carry out espionage.

But the first crucial step was to obtain an authentic birth certificate. Historically, Moscow’s intelligence services had paid great attention to this task. In his memoirs, Oleg Gordievsky, a former KGB officer who defected to Britain, described his constant search for birth certificates suitable for use by “illegals.” He recounted how, while stationed in Denmark in the 1970s, he tried to recruit a priest who had access to the church register, where births and deaths were recorded.

“If we could gain access to the registers,” he wrote, “we could create an unlimited number of Danish identities.”

Whoever set up the extracts in Brazil paid great attention to detail.

“The ink is normal, the page is fine,” said a senior Brazilian investigator. “There are no signs of tampering with the books.” Like other officials, he requested anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.

While the documents appeared legitimate, the information contained therein was false. Authorities determined that the parents listed on the certificates either did not exist or never had children named in the documents.

In one excerpt, investigators uncovered a rare oversight — or perhaps a sly nod from one generation of spies to the next. According to a Western intelligence official, one of the fathers listed on the document was the Brazilian pseudonym of another Russian undercover operative who had worked in South America and Europe a generation earlier.

Andrei Soldatov, an investigative journalist and one of Russia's leading experts on intelligence, said he had never heard of a case where birth certificates were forged so far in advance. But, he added, such initiative in the system would be rewarded.

“If you can contribute to the illegals program, it puts you in an extremely good position in the eyes of your superiors,” he said. “It would be very good for your career.”

Prepared by: A.Š.