Russian diplomats reported as ‘expelled’ left Canada months before spy charges

OTTAWA – Two Russian diplomats reported as having been expelled in connection with an espionage case against a Canadian naval officer were at the end of their terms and scheduled to leave weeks and months before the charges were laid, Postmedia News has learned.

Lt.-Col. Dmitry Fedorchatenko was seen off by fellow defence attaches in early November after nearly three years in Ottawa, while attache Konstantin Kolpakov left Canada at the end of December after nearly five years in Canada.

German defence attache Lt.-Col. Kay Kuhlen said he knew Fedorchatenko very well, particularly as the two regularly played hockey together and often ran into each other at diplomatic receptions.

As the longest-serving military attache in Ottawa, Kuhlen is responsible for planning monthly receptions to welcome new counterparts arriving for postings in the capital and see off those returning home or heading to new postings. This information is relayed by the Department of National Defence.

Kuhlen said defence department officials notified him in early November that Fedorchatenko was leaving Canada that month. A farewell party was hosted at the Venezuelan embassy on Nov. 10 in which the Russian military officer was feted before he departed a few days later.

“It was the end of his time and we knew this weeks in advance,” Kuhlen said.

Media reports Thursday said Fedorchatenko’s name as well as Kolpakov’s and those of two other Russian embassy administrative and technical staff members, Mikhail Nikiforov and Tatiana Steklova, were dropped from the Department of Foreign Affairs’ list of foreign representatives officially recognized by Canada.

The reports linked the changes to Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Paul Delisle being charged this week with allegedly providing protected information to a foreign entity.

Kuhlen could not speak to any connection between Fedorchatenko and Delisle, but he was skeptical of reports the Russian defence attache was expelled.

“I don’t know where they received their information that Dmitry is still in the country or was kicked out of the country recently,” he said. “Of course I did not drive him to the airport and take him up to the plane, but for us it was always clear that after mid-November he was out of business.”

A small farewell party was hosted for Kolpakov on Dec. 22 in advance of his return to Moscow on Christmas Day. The executive assistant to Russian Ambassador Georgiy Mamedov, Kolpakov had told diplomatic colleagues for months that his first foreign posting was coming to an end.

“It had been scheduled for at least eight or nine months,” said Carleton University professor Piotr Dutkiewicz, who first met Kolpakov at a seminar several years ago and helped see the diplomat off.

Dutkiewicz said he also met Kolpakov’s mother, a scholar on Islam in Russia, when she visited Ottawa a few years back to give a presentation.

Given Kolpakov’s family background and junior position within the embassy, Dutkiewicz said it is “highly unlikely” Kolpakov was involved in some type of spy operation.

“It doesn’t fit into the pattern,” he said.

Reasons for the departure of two “administrative and technical staff” remain unconfirmed, and the Russian embassy was not responding to questions Friday. Conservative government officials refused to comment on the Russian departures Friday, citing national security.

Former Canadian ambassador to Moscow Christopher Westdal said it’s well known that Russia is spying on Western governments – and vice versa. Just this week, for example, a former chief of staff to British prime minister Tony Blair admitted a fake rock stuffed with surveillance equipment was used to monitor Russian officials in 2006.

But Westdal warned against reading too much into the government’s refusal to comment, noting that there isn’t even proof that the charges against Delisle are related to Russia.

“It doesn’t suggest to me that this is evidence and people have been persona non grataed,” he said, using the official term for diplomatic expulsions. “It leaves me scratching my head. It scarcely sounds like . . . get them out tomorrow morning situation.”

The fact the Conservative government has refused to set the record straight one way or the other could be a tactic, he added, though whether that’s to protect relations with Russia or to punish it for positions on Syria and the Arctic is unclear.

“I think (the government) does have an intention at long last to build relations with Russia,” he said.

“But Russia’s refusal to take the Western view of Syria is probably agitating the government. They would feel that Russia is arming the Syrian government, Russia is protecting the Syrian government in the UN Security Council.”

Delisle is accused of giving “a foreign entity” secret information between July 6, 2007 and Jan. 13, 2012. He was arrested in Halifax and will stay in jail until his next hearing on Jan. 25.