Two Russian Embassy staff in Ottawa have left Canada in the wake of spying allegations against a Canadian naval officer in Halifax, CBC News has confirmed.
Initial media reports said up to four Russian Embassy staff had been removed from a list of embassy and diplomatic staff recognized by Canada. CBC News has confirmed that two have had their credentials revoked since news broke of the naval officer's arrest, while two diplomats left the country a month or more before the arrest this week of Canadian Sub.-Lt. Jeffrey Paul Delisle.
Konstantin Kolpakov, a former aide to the ambassador, was scheduled to leave Canada on Dec. 25 because his posting was over, and had a send-off attended by diplomats around Ottawa mid-month.

TIMELINE Spies and Canada's secrets

CBC News has also learned Lt.-Col. Dmitry V. Fedorchatenko, assistant defence attaché, was scheduled to leave in November.
Kolpakov and Fedorchatenko were known to circulate around the diplomatic scene in the capital, attending functions with other foreign representatives, Canadian diplomats and journalists.
The two others, Mikhail Nikiforov and Tatiana Steklova, were listed as administrative and technical staff until Jan. 19 but are no longer on a list of accredited diplomats on the website of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
A report in the Russian media Friday quoted the country's foreign ministry as saying it was surprised to see Canadian media reports about the expulsions. The report says the embassy staff left at the end of 2011 because their rotations were ending.
A woman who answered the phone at the Russian Embassy in Ottawa refused to comment on the departures.
Lt.-Col. Kay Kuhlen, defence attaché for the German Embassy and head of the Ottawa Service Attachés Association, an organization that helps military diplomats, says he was advised in September that Fedorchatenko was leaving. His farewell event was Nov. 10. He also says he is "surprised" by the reports of spying.

Charges relate to security information act

Diplomatic staff usually do three- or four-year postings in an embassy before returning home or going on to a posting in another country.
Delisle, 40, was arrested in the Halifax area last weekend. He faces two charges under the Security of Information Act that deal with communicating information that could harm Canada's interests, according to court documents.
Canadian naval officer and Halifax native Jeffrey Paul Delisle, seen in this 1990 high school yearbook photo, is accused of passing defence secrets to the Russians. 
Canadian naval officer and Halifax native Jeffrey Paul Delisle, seen in this 1990 high school yearbook photo, is accused of passing defence secrets to the Russians.
Two of the charges are for breach of trust and communicating to a foreign entity information the government wants to safeguard, and cover July 7, 2007, to Jan. 13, 2012. A third charge is for trying to communicate to a foreign entity information the government wants to safeguard, and covers Jan. 10 to 13, 2012, after at least one of the Russian diplomats left Canada.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay described the case Tuesday as a matter of national security because of the charges involved, but would not discuss specifics at that time, including whether the foreign entity in question was Russia.
"Given the early stages of the proceedings, there is really nothing more that can be said," he told a news conference in Ottawa.
The minister sought to reassure Canadians that allegations of espionage revolving around the Halifax naval intelligence officer would not affect the country's reputation among other NATO members.
"Our allies have full confidence in Canada, full confidence in our information," MacKay said.