OTTAWA—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is downplaying the option of Russian diplomatic expulsions as little more than a “symbolic gesture” that might be outweighed by the loss of Canadian diplomatic eyes and ears in Russia were Moscow to retaliate.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Trudeau said there “will always be a tit-for-tat approach from the Russians on this.”
He was scathing in his assessment of the role played by Russian diplomats in Canada, saying they “are spreading disinformation, they are pushing pro-Putin propaganda in a time of conflict and war.”
“We have to weigh the negative of that against the positive of having extraordinary Canadians in Moscow who are giving us feedback on what the Russian people are doing, connecting with civil society, understanding and supporting Canadians and others who happen to be in Russia at this time. If we exclude Russian diplomats — which we are considering, like other countries and our allies are doing — we know that will probably mean we lose diplomats in — in Moscow.”
Trudeau said the federal government reduced the size of its diplomatic staff in Moscow following President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and its annexation of Crimea, as well as after the poisoning in Salisbury, England of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian intelligence officer, and his daughter. Skripal had been convicted of spying for Britain and later went to the UK as part of a 2010 prisoner swap. The British and allied countries blamed Putin for the brazen assassination attempt.
While Trudeau said his government understood “how horrific” Russia’s actions are and the need to use all tools to condemn them and support Ukraine, he said “we don’t want to be without resources in Moscow, and that’s the kind of decision we’ re having to take right now.”
“I’m just not sure that the symbolic gesture of excluding Russian diplomats from … what they’re doing in Canada is worth the cost of losing our diplomats in Moscow.”
Trudeau’s Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly had said earlier this week she would consult with her cabinet colleagues on whether Canada would “react promptly” and follow the lead of several allied countries which had expelled Russian diplomats. That list includes the US, Germany, Italy, Spain, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Denmark, Romania, Sweden, France and European Union.
On Wednesday Joly was traveling from Berlin to Brussels ahead of meetings of NATO foreign ministers.
Joly had said the Trudeau government would sanction 18 more Russian and Belarusian individuals as the world expresses revulsion at Ukrainian civilian casualties revealed in Bucha and beyond.
On Wednesday, it published a list of nine individuals identified as “elites and close associates” of the Putin regime and nine “close associates of the Lukashenko regime who were sanctioned for having facilitated and enabled violations of Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence.” Aleksandr Lukashenko is the president of Belarus.
The names include Kirill Nikolayevich Shamalov, a Russian businessman who is the ex-husband of Katerina Tikhonova and Putin’s ex-son-in-law; Igor Olegovich Kostyukov, head of Russia’s military intelligence agency GRU; Dmitry Alexandrovich Pumpyansky, an oligarch under British and EU sanctions who saw his superyacht seized last month in Spain; Vladimir Olegovich Potanin, a nickel company executive identified by Forbes magazine as having a net worth of $25.5 billion; Viktor Felixovich Vekselberg, a Ukrainian-born aluminum baron who Forbes said merged his company with Oleg Deripaska’s to form UC Rusal; Dmitry Alexandrovich Pumpyansky, an oligarch sanctioned by the EU as chairman of the board of Pipe Metallurgical Company, Galina Evgenyevna Pumpyanskaya, chairwoman of the board of trustees of BF “Sinara” also sanctioned by the EU; Vadim Nikolaevich Moshkovich, a Russian entrepreneur also sanctioned by the EU who has business interests in agriculture and real-estate development, founder of Rusagro Group; and billionaires Leonid Viktorovich Mikhelson, and Alexander Semenovich Vinokurov.
On Wednesday, the US detailed new sanctions the Biden administration is levying against two Russian banks and other wealthy Russians, including Putin’s daughters. The package, which was co-ordinated with the European Union and the Group of Seven, stiffens sanctions on Sberbank, Russia’s largest financial institution, and on Alfa Bank, the nation’s largest bank.
The measures also target Putin’s two daughters, Mariya Putina and Katerina Tikhonova, as well as other members of the Russian elite, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s wife and daughter. Also sanctioned were Mikhail Mishustin, Russia’s prime minister, and Dmitry Medvedev, the former president and prime minister.
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