If you’ve watched The Americans, you know the series revolves around Soviet spies living double lives in the United States during the Cold War — agents who become completely “normal” people to maintain their cover, building families, businesses, relationships, and even seemingly genuine emotional bonds, all while secretly operating against the U.S. government.

Now imagine a similar scenario — except instead of the Cold War and the U.S., we have 21st-century Brazil — a country historically friendly to Russia, but which, behind the scenes, became a true laboratory for one of the boldest Russian espionage operations in recent years.

This isn’t fiction. It’s real life, as revealed by a New York Times investigation that uncovered a genuine Russian “spy factory” on Brazilian soil. Internally dubbed “Operação Leste” (“Operation East”) by the Brazilian federal police, the mission was clear: turn Brazil into fertile ground for Russian spies — the so-called “illegals” — who, unlike traditional agents working as informants or embassy staff, completely abandon their origins and construct fully Brazilian identities.

The art of disguise: from agents to entrepreneurs and everyday citizens

In The Americans, Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth Jennings (Keri Russell) build entire lives — from romantic relationships to children — to conceal their true mission. In Brazil, the scene was similar. Rhys even won the Emmy for Best Actor for the role. Russian spies started businesses, enrolled in Brazilian universities, fell in love, and even had pets — like Artem Shmyrev, who posed as Gerhard Daniel Campos Wittich, owner of a 3D printing company in Rio de Janeiro. He even shared an apartment with a Brazilian girlfriend and a Maine Coon cat.

Just like in fiction, these agents lived seemingly ordinary lives, but with a far more complex mission: to consolidate real documents that would validate their Brazilian identities, so they could then be sent on to missions across the globe — United States, Europe, the Middle East — where they would finally carry out their actual espionage work.

Brazil: the perfect stage for Russian espionage?

Brazil was strategically chosen for several reasons: the Brazilian passport is powerful, allowing visa-free travel to dozens of countries; the country’s vast ethnic diversity facilitates disguise; and the decentralized and vulnerable civil registry system opened loopholes to obtain authentic birth certificates for “ghost people” — fabricated identities with no real existence, yet legitimized by official documents.

Thus, these “illegals” were able to transform into real “Brazilians,” with all the paperwork in place — voter ID, military certificate, passport — giving them the mobility and credibility to operate abroad.

Hunting ghosts: uncovering the network

In Brazil, the Federal Police assembled a dedicated team to investigate these undercover spies. They spent months combing through millions of documents, searching for patterns and “ghosts” — Brazilians with legitimate papers who had never actually been seen or registered in real life.

It was meticulous work, very similar to the intelligence and counterintelligence tactics we’ve come to admire in series like The Americans. Only this time, it wasn’t fiction: real agents identified and dismantled a network of at least nine Russian spies, many of whom had entire lives built from scratch.

One of the most emblematic cases was Sergey Cherkasov, who studied at Johns Hopkins and tried to enter the Netherlands with a Brazilian passport to work at an international institution. In custody, he vehemently denied being a spy, defending his Brazilian identity with authentic documents — until the investigation unraveled his phantom birth.

Reality check: When 21st-century war reaches Brazil

In The Americans, the Cold War serves as the backdrop for political tension, betrayal, and internal conflicts. In real life, Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine gave new urgency to global investigations into Russian espionage.

Brazil, which had long taken a more neutral and passive stance toward Moscow, suddenly came under the radar of international agencies like the CIA, which alerted Brazilian authorities to the presence of undercover agents on national soil.

Kremlin’s defeat in Brazil

In the end, the Brazilian operation achieved something remarkable: it dismantled this sophisticated network of agents, arrested some, and forced others to flee back to Russia, likely never to operate abroad again.

While The Americans ends with its characters facing the consequences of their double lives, in Brazil, the story is very much real and ongoing. A story that shows the country is not just a stage for soap operas or films — it’s also a geopolitical battlefield, where espionage, politics, and diplomacy mix in scenarios as complex as any television script.

If it were a series, Os Brasileiros would follow agents living seemingly ordinary lives in Copacabana and São Paulo, while trying to keep their secrets — between barbecues, family parties, and business meetings — with the federal police hot on their trail.

It would be the Brazilian and contemporary version of The Americans, but this time, with real characters, legitimate covers, and the heart of the espionage world beating in South America. So now, the question is: which streaming platform will pick up the story first?