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TORONTO — The sons of two Russian “deep cover” spies are fighting to keep the Canadian citizenship they acquired while their parents were living in Toronto under assumed identities and secretly working for Russian intelligence.

Alexander and Timothy Vavilov, 21 and 25, are the children of Elena Vavilova and Andrey Bezrukov, Russian operatives who were sent to Canada to develop “legends” that would mask their spying activities in the United States.

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tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or These brothers were born in Toronto, but their parents were Russian spies, so they cannot be Canadian Back to video

The parents stole the identities of Tracey Foley and Donald Heathfield, Canadians who had died as infants. The couple maintained the fiction for two decades until they were arrested in 2010 and sent back to Russia in a spy swap.

The brothers also returned to Russia at the time but are now claiming they are Canadians, and they have taken the government to court to be recognized as such, arguing that since they were born in Toronto they have a right to citizenship.