Russian spy had Portuguese nationality
Manuel and Adriana Pereira had had in Rio de Janeiro a antique business based in a Barra da Tijuca building. And on the role they were just another couple of Brazilians who moved to Portugal in 2018. But actually they belonged to the most complex category of Russian spies, known as ‘illegal’: people who spend years to build an identity, the so -called ‘legend’, which allows them to lead an ordinary life without suspicion and who can stay inactive for decades until they have the time to start collecting information for Moscow.
His true identity-and that of six other illegal-was discovered by an investigation by the Brazilian Federal Police unfolded in the last three years after the invasion of Ukraine and which was revealed Wednesday by The New York Times. His true names were Vladimir Danilov and Yekaterina Danilova.
It is not known much about their life in Portugal, where they arrived in 2018. But the sunrise learned from various sources of information services that they were able to obtain Portuguese nationality since in the Brazilian identification documents ‘Manuel Pereira’ had a Portuguese father, which allowed him to request a national passport. Thanks to this, your wife then obtained residence permission. The goal would be to build a coverage story so that they can act as Portuguese, in our country or abroad.
The ‘illegal’ use true documents to build their identity. They often resort to birth certificates of children who die shortly after or register even babies who have never been born to use their identities in the future.
When about three years ago it was warned by the international counterparts of the presence of the two illegals in Portugal, SIS began immediately to try to reconstruct the couple’s route. It was possible to realize that they entered and left the country several times until they left Portugal definitely. The woman was the first to return to Russia and he followed her. « Once identified, the SIS transmitted the necessary information to the authorities, namely to the Institute of Registrations and Notaries to cancel the national documentation, » explains source of the secrets that accompanies the phenomenon of illegals.
