Ex-KGB’s family fear deportation

The family members of former KGB officer Mikhail Lennikov say that they are in depression ever since their slim chance of being allowed to live in Canada was dashed.

The family members of former KGB officer Mikhail Lennikov say that they are in depression ever since their slim chance of being allowed to live in Canada was dashed.

On Thursday, a pre-removal risk assessment concluded that if returned to Russia, the family will not be prone to torture or abuse. Lennikov, along with his wife Irina and 17-year-old son, Dimitri, is in Canada since 1997.

Lennikov said that the family fled Russia in order to escape revenge from the KGB because the state security organization considered him a traitor for resigning in 1998. Sending us back to Russia is not good at all, they are literally killing us, he added.

Now they have exhausted all legal means to stay in Canada and as the last resort, they have filed an appeal to the Public Safety Minister, Stockwell Day for getting permission to stay in the country. However, Lennikov did it just for the sake of it as he himself thinks that the minister will not help.

Earlier, the family was not granted permanent residency in Canada by an immigration officer after it was disclosed that Lennikov is an ex-KGB officer. The plight of this Burnaby family has received wide publicity in Canada.

Their appeal was rejected on the base that current or former members of an organization engaged in an espionage or subversive activity against democratic governments or institutions are no eligible for attaining the status of permanent residents of Canada.

According to the documents filed with the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Lennikov was recruited into the KGB in the year 1982. However Lennikov has maintained that he was virtually forced to join the KGB and that he was always looking to leave it. In 1998, he submitted a report stating that he was not capable of service and thus, he was dismissed. But after he left, he said, he received a many warnings from the KGB contacts that he was a marked man and has been tagged as a traitor.

In 1995, he left Russia and moved to Japan and then came to Canada.

He told the pre-removal risk assessment officer that he feared his safety if he is returned to Russia and that the Russian security service- the KGB’s replacement- will torture his wife to get information against him. Soon, his son will also be inducted into the Russian army and will undergo brutal hazing because of his father being a disregarded KGB officer. He said that if he is sent back then his life will be ruined.