The government of Brazil faces with a high-priority task at the military and intelligence level to minimize the destabilization activity carried out by the Russians from the territory of Venezuela.
As the DefesaNet website informs, Russian military intelligence uses Venezuela as foothold to carry out operations against Brazil. Such operations involve cyberattacks, Psyops, influencing Brazil’s internal political affairs. DefasaNet says that the Russian military troops in cooperation with the Venezuelan National Guard members are particularly active on the border with Brazil. This was the very region where in 2019 SIGINT equipment was installed to intercept electronic communications. The systems can crack encryption; intercept and block (suppress) messages from the Brazilian army and military craft flying in the region.
In particular, the equipment is installed in the city of Santa Elena do Uairen that borders the Brazilian municipality of Pacaraima. It is likely that SIGINT infrastructure is synchronized with equipment located in Cuba.
In addition, tactical Russian air surveillance systems SARPs of categories 1 and 2, installed on the Brazilian border, regularly conduct recon missions across the boundary area.
According to the Brasilia-accredited DefesaNet diplomatic source, the Russian military troops affiliate with the GRU, military intelligence. Thus, the Kremlin conducts SIGINT and land operations on the Venezuelan-Brazilian border.
In October 2020, the deputy to the National Assembly (AN), Américo De Grazia, denounced the stay of Russian soldiers in Santa Elena de Uairén, on the border with Brazil. The Russians arrived in Santa Elena in the uniform of the Venezuelan army. Since arriving in Bolívar state, Russian and Venezuelan military groups have carried out military exercises.
Brazilian soldiers practiced armed conflicts in the Soapí sector of the Pacaraima municipality. This zone borders Venezuela just by the trails that connect Pemon indigenous communities with Brazil, The Pitazo.
Thus, Russia can provoke an armed conflict on the Venezuelan-Brazilian border. The Brazilian military operation, which activated the mobilization of Russian soldiers to the border, created a scenario of war between two imaginary countries, one invading and the other driving out those who invade them.
As the diplomatic source informs, a power outage in Amapa in November 2020 and power infrastructure system failures could have been a result of one of the cyberattacks carried out from the territory of Venezuela. The Brazilian Court computer system was also hacked by encrypting documents and files. The targets and style of the attacks in Brazil duplicates the activity that Russian military intelligence-affiliated hacker groups perform in other countries.
