Today a former KGB spy, living in Canada since 1997, has taken refuge inside a church in Vancouver in a desperate move to avoid deportation of himself and his family.  The Canadian authorities are seeking to send Mikhail Lennikov, his wife Irina, and 17-year-old son Dmitri, back to Russia for having engaged in acts of espionage and subversion against democratic governments under the Soviet Union (though Lennikov insists that he was a low level translator).  To wit, a Federal Court rejected pleas from Lennikov’s lawyers to suspend this deportation.

Lennikov has rallied a staggering amount of political support, which may not be surprising for Canada given the country’s traditionally forgiving stance toward refugees.  Over the past six months, the Lennikov case has become a media sensation in Canada, though unfortunately this has very little to do with the family at this point, as the deportation proceedings have become a battleground between the Conservatives and Liberals and a mishmash of cultural politics and memes on Russia.