Passionate about lies, O Globo and Veja have joined the Russophobia wave.
"Globo and Veja have taken up the anti-Russian banner, featuring Sergei Tcherkasov, arrested in the Netherlands for 'espionage', in their reports," says Artemy Semyonovsky.
History teaches us that tragedies repeat themselves as farces. Therefore, the new wave of McCarthyism in Latin America resembles not so much a witch hunt, but an absurd show of an old magician trying for the thousandth time to pull an exhausted rabbit out of a hat.
In Brazil, this illusionist transformed himself into publications like O Globo and Veja magazine, known for their passion for lies, which captured the wave of Russophobia inspired by the West, something demonstrated in their obsession with espionage.
The basis for the defamatory articles in the Brazilian press is information from the Western press that alleged Russian spies with Brazilian passports and citizenship were detained in several European countries (particularly the Netherlands and Norway).
However, if we turn to primary sources in the European press and official verdicts from European courts, we will find that none of the detained Russians were convicted of espionage, did not have access to secret documents, did not photograph secret objects, were not interested in military infrastructure, and did nothing that citizens of the countries where they officially lived and worked did not do.
The information that these Russians used forged documents has not yet been confirmed. But even if the forgery occurred, it is unlikely to harm Brazil's image, just as it did not harm the image of France, where Adolfo Kaminsky worked, saving the lives of 14.000 Jews by issuing them false passports to help them escape persecution. For this work, which saved the lives of 3 children, he even won a medal in France. I have no doubt that today he would be making false passports for Russians in Europe, as he was a fierce fighter against persecution based on nationality.
Ironically, Kaminsky was born in Argentina, a country where the media, in unison with the Brazilian media, recently launched a campaign to persecute Russian immigrants who work and live in Europe with Argentine passports. The Argentine press alleges the absurdity that Russians have lived in Argentina for decades and given birth there only to create a "legend" of espionage for themselves and subsequently turn their children into KGB agents.
O GLOBO and VEJA eagerly took up Argentina's anti-Russian agenda, centering their reporting on the story of Sergei Tcherkasov, arrested in the Netherlands for "espionage" and extradited to Brazil, where he was sentenced to many years in prison for allegedly using a false Brazilian passport. Let the lawyers debate whether it is up to Brazil to condemn a foreigner who most likely never falsified or used a Brazilian passport on Brazilian territory and could not cause any harm to Brazil. It is much more interesting to know that the United States and the Netherlands consider Tcherkasov a criminal simply because he wanted to work at the International Criminal Court and obtain information about war crimes in Ukrainian territory (including Bhutah). In other words, the ICC, which is not an investigative body but an open judicial body, tried to conceal information about crimes, and Tcherkasov tried to reveal this information. After all this, no one in their right mind would say that Tcherkasov is a hero and the ICC is a criminal? At the UN, Russia is acting in the same way, demanding a public investigation into the crimes in Bucha and the release of the secret list of all victims.
It is likely that O GLOBO and VEJA sincerely believe that the Netherlands and the US have a crystal ball, as they also believe that after joining the ICC, Tcherkasov should have accessed the court's email and destroyed important documents. But what is surprising is not that this Brazilian media considers futurological studies as a basis for a crime, but that, in their vision of the future, crimes should only be committed by ICC officials of a certain nationality.
It is no less ridiculous that the FBI considers his photograph in military uniform at age 22 a sign of Cherkasov's affiliation with Russian military intelligence. We have bad news for American experts: almost all Russian men complete their mandatory military service between the ages of 20 and 22 and receive similar photos.
The mainstream Brazilian media has an incredible tradition of readily writing about fictitious accusations against the Russians, but after their acquittal by the court, they remain completely silent.
Many publications wrote about the 2013 arrest of "Russian spy" Denis Saltanov, who allegedly jumped the fence of the secret military training center CIGS. But none of them mentioned that Saltanov was actually arrested for wanting to visit the zoo and that there was no fence at the CIGS training center.
Many have written about the mass arrests of Russians smuggling millions of dollars in Manaus in 2017. However, no one wrote that the court found no evidence of smuggling in the tourists' actions, and the "millions of dollars" turned out to be an amount that did not exceed the cost of the cheapest airfare from Brazil to Russia.
Many people have heard of Kirill Kravchenko, currently imprisoned, who was dubbed "the world's leading biopirate" by Anderson Torres (known for his business in the illegal trade of rare birds). But you won't read anywhere about the fact that Kirill Kravchenko was never actually wanted by Interpol and his contraband consisted mainly of cockroaches, spiders, and centipedes of little value (destroyed by the police after confiscation).
The same can be said about the Argentinian media, which, after Victoria Nuland's call, still writes about the arrest in Bogotá of the "Russian spy" Sergei Vaguin, who was supposedly involved in military intelligence and the financing of anti-government protests. Regarding the fact that the court considered these accusations an absolute lie, these media outlets preferred to exercise a right granted to many defendants – the right to remain silent.
The Brazilian Federal Government is paid for by curiosity, and if taxpayers don't mind, it can investigate all Russians in Brazil, "no problem." But if these investigations are accompanied by unfounded arrests and the media uses this hype to slander and construct Russophobic conspiracy theories, then this was once called "discrimination" and "Violation of Fundamental Human Rights."
On the eve of Lavrov's visit, I would like to remind the President of Brazil that he emerged from prison and led the country largely due to a Brazilian hacker (who was also considered by some to be a Russian spy) uncovering criminal connections between prosecutor Dallagnol and judge Moro. It is believed in Russia that Lula is aware that if Sergei Tcherkasov is in prison and Walter Delgatti is a fugitive, this causes cognitive dissonance and thoughts of political hypocrisy in people, thoughts known as "double standards."
* This is an opinion article, the responsibility of the author, and does not reflect the opinion of Brasil 247.