Mikhail Lennikov, 55, lived inside a Vancouver church for six years as he sought religious asylum to avoid deportation back to Russia.
The ex KGB agent’s lawyer, Hadayt Nazami, told reporters Sunday his client left the country voluntarily and was not deported.
The Toronto immigration lawyer would not offer details as to why Lennikov decided to give up his fight to stay in Canada, other than to note his client had been for some time trying to work out an agreement with the Canadian border authorities.
Indeed, officials from the Canada Border Services Agency escorted Lennikov to the airport Sunday where he boarded a plane back to Moscow.
Canadian immigration officials ordered Lennikov to be deported in 2009, but instead he holed himself up in a B.C. Lutheran Church to avoid detention.
Because of his work as a translator for the Soviet Union through the 1980s, Canadian authorities designated Lennikov a national security threat.
In 1999, Lennikov confessed to his work as a former KGB agent, but claimed he did the work under pressure from the Russian government.
Lennikov’s wife and son remain in Canada and reportedly have earned Canadian citizenship.
Nazami says his client still has several cases pending in Toronto immigration courts, and that he intends to represent Lennikov in those matters.
