This Ex-KGB Agent Lived in a Church for Six Years to Avoid Deportation From Canada

A former member of the KGB has left Canada, six years after he sought sanctuary in a British Columbia church.

Facing deportation to Russia in 2009, Mikhail Lennikov decided to live in Vancouver's First Lutheran Church to avoid being separated from his family. On Sunday, his immigration lawyer told Canadian media the former Soviet spy agency worker left the country by choice.

"He left at the end of this week, and left on his own accord, voluntarily, according to his own wishes and decisions he reached himself," his lawyer Hadayt Nazami told Global News.

Nazami told Canadian media he did not know where he was headed.

Lennikov first came to Canada with his wife and son in 1997 on a student visa and settled in Burnaby, a suburb of Vancouver. He fought to stay, but the minister of public safety ruled that as a former espionage agent, he should be removed, and the decision was upheld by the courts.

He was ordered deported on June 3, 2009, but he never showed up at the Vancouver airport, and took refuge instead in the church, which had built a room for him to stay. He said he believed he would face treason charges in Russia, and he wanted to stay near his wife and son, who were allowed to stay in Canada.

"In the interests of my family, and to prevent my family [from] being split indefinitely, if not for life, I think for us, for my family, it is important that I stay in Canada," he told CBC in 2009.

This week, his lawyer told Canadian media the threat of treason charges no longer hangs over Lennikov. "I can only hope he is safe," his lawyer said.

His family has since become Canadian citizens, and they plan to stay in Canada.

Related: Russia Is Trolling the British Prime Minister Over KGB Recruitment Claims

In his dealings with the Canadian government, Lennikov did not dispute that he was a translator for the Soviet spy agency in the 1980s, although he has said he wasn't eager to work for them.Related: Russia Is Trolling the British Prime Minister Over KGB Recruitment Claims

Last year, the Winnipeg Free Press reported that the federal government planned to deport another former KGB agent who was living in Winnipeg. The paper described "a top-secret court application" to have the man removed, and said the federal government planned to use Lennikov's case as a precedent.

Although local NDP MP Peter Julian said in 2009 that 98 percent of people in his community were supportive of Lennikov seeking asylum in the church, public opinion wasn't entirely in his court.

The Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association (UCCLA) launched a campaign to have Lennikov removed from the country, and in December 2013, the group even offered him a one-way ticket to Russia for Christmas, Burnaby Now reported.

UCCLA chair Roman Zakaluzny told the British Columbian paper he didn't want KGB men in Canada. "We don't understand why the [Canadian Border Services Agency] has failed to do what it was ordered to do more than four years ago."

The CBSA has the ability to arrest people who seek sanctuary in churches, but the agency chose not to do so in this case.

"He has shown no remorse for having been an agent of Soviet repression," Zakaluzny continued. He argued there are "genuine refugees" Canada could help instead.

Speaking to VICE News on Monday, Zakaluzny said the UCCLA has campaigns against several ex-KGB agents who are living in Canada, but he wouldn't say how many.

He also said the group is not against sanctuary-seekers in general, but is against former members of the secret police "that are responsible for the deaths, the incarceration, and the torture of many millions of people around the world."

"Under our laws, they are not allowed to be here, so the fact that we actually have to campaign for it, it's a bit of a disappointment that our laws aren't being followed," Zakaluzny said.

Follow Hilary Beaumont on Twitter: @hilarybeaumont

Watch the VICE News Documentary, Crimea: Welcome to Russia: