The officer mentioned the case of Alexander Litvinenko, the former agent who was fatally poisoned with radioactive polonium in London in 2006 after accusing the Russian security services of complicity in a series of apartment bombings ostensibly linked to the war in Chechnya. Russian authorities have been accused of involvement in the poisoning, which they deny.
But Lennikov's case was not of a similar magnitude, the officer found, stating that the former KGB officer did "not indicate having worked with technical or other scientific information which may be considered sensitive by the Russian authorities."
Officials were also unswayed by Lennikov's claims that, at various times while in Vancouver, he had run into three men he knew to be Russian security agents, one of whom appeared to be monitoring him.
"The fact is there are still people in Russia who remember that I embarrassed them, and I believe they are still very powerful people. They would like to settle scores with me," Lennikov said.
Oleg Gordievsky, a former KGB colonel who defected to Britain in 1985 and wrote one of the definitive histories of the agency, said agents seen as defectors are dealt with harshly.
"To say that the Russian/Soviet authorities do not bother about the defectors is absurd. . . . They . . . have a special KGB department monitoring the whereabouts and movements of all KGB and GRU defectors," he said in an e-mail message. The GRU is Russia's largest foreign intelligence agency.
Though he is not familiar with the details of Lennikov's case, Gordievsky said, "If it had been in the Soviet time, most likely he would be executed. . . . In [former Russian President Vladimir] Putin's time, since 1999, he would have received 14 to 16 years [in prison camp], with a view that he would be killed by inmates."
At minimum, Lennikov faces the possibility of permanent separation from his wife and son. Irina and Dmitri have been granted permission to apply for permanent residency, and probably will do so to avoid the risk of Dmitri being drafted into the Russian army.
Irina Lennikov says the prospect of being separated from her husband is heartbreaking. "It's tearing me apart. I want to be with the man I love, and yet I must be with my son," she said.
Some fellow Eastern Bloc immigrants have urged authorities to proceed with the deportation; they scoff at the idea that anyone was forced into the KGB at a time when it was one of the best jobs in the Soviet Union.
