Elena Crenna and her Canadian husband were thrilled when a federal tribunal ruled she was not a “sex spy” for Russia and should be cleared for permanent residency in Canada.“We were relieved that sanity finally prevailed. We were jubilant,” Crenna said of the immigration tribunal’s decision in May. “We even went on a trip to visit my son in the States. We thought we were done and could move on with our lives.”Their joy was short-lived, however, when they learned the Canada Border Services Agency is appealing the decision, saying the 56-year-old Russian-born American citizen shouldn’t be allowed to live in Canada because she allegedly engaged in espionage activities while working for a Canadian Crown corporation near Moscow in the 1990s.Crenna insists the allegations are untrue and that continuing to pursue the case is a “waste of our resources and Canada’s resources.” She was cleared for permanent residency in May by the immigration tribunal, which refuted the border agency’s allegations and concluded there was no evidence she did anything “surreptitious, covert or secretive” that would amount to espionage. Crenna, who was then Elena Filatova, had worked as a translator on a joint housing project by the World Bank and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. in Tver, northwest of Moscow, between 1994 and 1996.During that time period, Crenna said she was approached by an agent of Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, the successor to the KGB, and asked about the project and David Crenna, 74, her then boss and now husband.According to the border agency’s inadmissibility report, Crenna told Canadian officials she spoke with the Russian intelligence agency at the instruction of the project management, which also informed the Canadian Security Intelligence Service about the contact.Crenna later moved to California and became a nurse. She reconnected with David Crenna in 2008 ...
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