the logical site for a communications centre. The Soviets, however, built their communications centre in a sealed chamber elsewhere in the building and the bugs proved useless. With the fall of the Soviet Union the building became the Russian embassy. The massive bust of Lenin was removed from the lobby and soon after the building's exterior was modified to make it less imposing. Jeffrey Delisle espionage case In July 2007, Jeffrey Delisle, a former Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Navy walked into the Embassy of Russia in Ottawa and offered to sell secret information to the Russian military intelligence service; the GRU. He eventually passed on sensitive information from the top-secret STONEGHOST intelligence sharing network to Russia. Delisle continued handing over classified information to his GRU handler for 4 more years until December 2011 before being arrested in January 2012. 2022 Russian invasion in Ukraine On 1 March 2022, during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the embassy claimed that The Russian army does not occupy Ukrainian territory and takes all measures to preserve the lives and safety of civilians, without providing evidence. The Embassy claimed that the responsibility for all civilian deaths during the Russian attack, called "Special Military Operation" in Kremlin-controlled media, was on the Ukrainian side. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly has referred to claims from the Russian Embassy as "misinformation" and "propaganda". Homophobia The Russian Embassy has been critical to homosexuality in Canada, especially three gay members of the Canadian Cabinet. The Russian ambassador has claimed that Russia does not interfere in internal Canadian affairs. Soviet/Russian Ambassadors to Canada Georgy Zarubin 1941-1942 Fedor Tarasovich Gusev 1942-1943 Dimitri S. Chuvahin 1950s Boris Miroshnichenko ?-1973 Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev 1973-1983 Aleksei A. Rodionov 1983-? Vitaly Churkin 1998-2003 Georgiy Mamedov 2003-2014 Alexander Darchiev 2014–Present External links Official site Notes References Ottawa Russia Canada–Russia relations Canada–Soviet Union relations