Russian scientist seeking asylum faces deportation

A Russian scientist seeking asylum in Canada has been scheduled to be deported Dec. 3.

Elena Musikhina, 54, and her husband Mikhail, 60, fear they will be arrested as soon as they land in Moscow, said their daughter, Olesia Sunatori, who lives in Gatineau.

“I know for sure once they are in Moscow, I won’t see them again. I am sure they will be handed over to the Russian security when they land,” said Sunatori. “I don’t know why the government doesn’t understand it.”

Musikhina claims she has data she collected in her hometown of Irkutsk, a Siberian city of about 600,000, that points to grave environmental repercussions related to industrial and military activity around Lake Baikal and its ecosystem. Others who knew about these dangers have died under violent and mysterious circumstances, she says.

In her submission to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Musikhina said she was called before the vice-rector of the Irkutsk State Technical University, where she was a professor, in September 2015. She said she was warned that authorities planned to accuse her under the Russian criminal code for her political activities. They fled to St. Petersburg and left Russia in October 2015, settling in Gatineau soon after.

The Immigration and Refugee Board turned down the couple’s application for refugee protection in June 2016, concluding that Musikhina had documented work-related problems at the university, but that the couple had not demonstrated that they were in serious danger of prosecution. The fact they left Russia unhindered “diminishes their credibility on regards to whether the authorities were seeking them,” the tribunal concluded.