Russian intelligence uses this name to distinguish such officers from “legitimate” spies who operate undercover as diplomats. Many countries employ spies posing as ordinary people, but Russia has long specialized in a type of deep-cover illegal spies who take on an entirely different nationality. These spies pretended to be American, British, Canadian or – in Ferreira’s case – Brazilian to allow them to move in circles where the Russians would be suspicious and therefore harder to operate.
