The Russian Federation has a rich heritage of over $ 16 million worth of buildings in the Montreal area. All of these assets were acquired during the Cold War and are linked to espionage and counter-espionage operations.
Our Bureau of Investigation has found a lot of interesting information about these assets, some of which are shrouded in mystery. The embassy did not respond to our queries regarding this.
A man of Ukrainian descent donated a small property to the Soviet Union in the village of Saint-Columban in Laurence in the early 1970s. The Russian government has insisted that it keep it to this day, although there has been practically no action. Years.
“The only people I saw five years ago were the renovation workers,” explains Guy Peron, who has lived on the same street for almost 10 years.
Franz Berkewin, who lived next door for about 20 years, said people “twenty years ago” seemed to live there permanently.
“But after that, it will always be back and forth on the weekends, and much less in recent years,” he says.
The mystery surrounding this property has sparked rumors in the small town of Laurence. Some talk about the former home of Soviet pilots, while others talk about the diplomats’ room.
Even in the municipality, we do not know the full history of this house, which is referred to as “government service” in the valuation list.
As early as 1968, our intelligence unit discovered that the property had been leased by someone from the Soviet government.
That year, Pavel Safonov, Consul General of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in Montreal, rented it for ten years at a symbolic price of $ 1 per year.
Pavel Fedorovich Safonov, Soviet ambassador to Montreal from 1967 to 1971.
The diplomat arrived in Montreal a year ago and headed to the brand new Soviet embassy in Montreal.
During his previous mission abroad, he was involved in a spy story.
In 1963, when he was in charge of the Soviet embassy in Australia, Mr. Safonov had to put one of his colleagues on an express flight to Moscow after he was caught spying by a dual agent of the Australian Secret Service.
In 1974 the Soviet Union became the owner of the building. In 1970, Simeon Kindelvich of Ukrainian descent signed a special will to surrender to the Soviet government.
I don’t know why he didn’t give it to his family who lives here. His grandson did not want to interview us. His great-grandson does not know this story.
Mr. Kindlevich died in Ukraine in 1972 and lived here for most of his life. His wife, Anna Shatko, worked for the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Montreal.
The Soviet Union lost its assets in 1977 for failing to pay its taxes. A particular René Labelle had asked for it at auction. But ten days later, an employee of the national airline Aeroflot came to settle the account for $ 215.77.
The current house was built in 1991. When we went last week, there was no living soul.
However, the flag of “Infomanistan” affixed in the garage of Jean-René Dufort, the host of the Infoman show a few weeks ago, is no longer there.
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