Two more Russian diplomats have quit Canada following the arrest of a Canadian sailor charged in January with handing over secrets to a foreign power, the Globe and Mail newspaper reported.
Dmitry Gerasimov, a consular officer with the Russian government’s office in Toronto, left in a routine posting change, the Russian embassy in Toronto said on Monday. The Russia’s defense attache in Ottawa, Colonel Sergey Zhukov, moved back to Moscow in a “normal rotation,” a Russian embassy official said.
But the Globe and Mail reported yesterday that Canada had removed Gerasimov and Zhukov from the list of envoys recognized by the government.
Canadian naval intelligence officer Sub-Lieutenant Jeffrey Paul Delisle was charged with giving classified information to a “foreign entity” between July 2007 and January this year. Local media reported that the entity was Russia.
Delisle may face life in prison if convicted.
Four other Russian embassy staff have left Canada in recent months but Russia’s Foreign Ministry denied their departures were linked with the spy controversy.
