The Liberal government of Canada is sanctioning five more top Russian officials, oligarchs and Vladimir Putin allies including billionaires Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov. It is also considering airlifts of Ukrainian refugees to Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday.
Trudeau said his government will look at all the ways to more quickly help transfer some of the over 2 million Ukrainian refugees who want to come to Canada as he wrapped a five-day trip to Europe here.
“I’m not ruling that out at all. We are looking at all options. We know how important it is to be there to support people fleeing.”
As the war escalates and a clear nuclear threat is posed by Russia’s attacks in Ukraine that have led to a power shutdown at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, Trudeau said it doesn’t matter whether Putin is rational or irrational.
“Regardless of Putin’s state of mind or motivations,” he said, “what’s important now is how the world acts in unity to response to his actions.”
“One of the things that we’ve seen throughout this is a very deliberate and expansive use of misinformation and disinformation aimed at obviously, the Russian people, to justify the deaths of thousands of Russian soldiers invading a neighbouring country, but also to try and justify this illegal war to the rest of the world,” said Trudeau. “And we have seen many ridiculous, preposterous justifications that are obviously false and irrational.”
“However, the state of mind of Putin I don’t think can be concluded ... based on the misinformation, disinformation and propaganda that is out there.”
Trudeau said that in his talks with “leaders who have had direct engagement with Vladimir Putin, the issue of what he wants, what the end game is, how to get through this, was the central top of the conversation — how to make him understand that there is no win in this for him, that what he is doing is not going to lead to benefits for him or for the Russian people.”
“On the contrary, it has set back Russia’s path forward — the path forward for Russians — significantly, this terrible mistake he’s made. And we are much more focused on how to make sure that there is an end to this rapidly than wondering what his deeper motivations or justifications might be.”
The Trudeau government’s latest round of individual sanctions also target a Russian judge, and follow the lead of the United Kingdom a day earlier in sanctioning Abramovich — the owner of the Chelsea soccer club and part owner of Canadian steel company Evraz.
The measures also target 32 entities, with export restrictions to hit Russian helicopter makers, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service and its defence department.
“This is part of us moving together with allies around the world on demonstrating clear and deep consequence for Putin and those who have enabled his regime.”
Trudeau travelled to four countries this week and met face-to-face or virtually with leaders of the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland and the head of NATO Jens Stoltenberg
He promised that as Putin escalates, more actions will come.
But he also said a “diplomatic” solution is the only way to end the war, now in its third week.
Trudeau said he’s had a “number” of conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and other leaders including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who are speaking directly to Putin.
“We are all united as allies and focusing on the need to continue to try and solve this diplomatically, even as bombs are falling on hospitals and schools. We know that this solution needs to be political, diplomatic one, ultimately as we make Putin and his enablers pay.”
Trudeau suggested there is no need for him to try to engage directly as Canada’s position as a staunch friend and ally of Ukraine was made clear to Russia by Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly’s engagements with her Russian counterpart Sergeĭ Lavrov and the Russian ambassador to Canada.
Trudeau said the sanctions on Russian officials and oligarchs do not put an end to operations by Evraz, the steelmaker partly owned by Abramovich.
Rather, the measures “are directed at them, so that they cannot profit or benefit from economic activities in Canada or the hard work of Canadians working in companies that they have investments in.”
Abramovich, he said, owns shares that are worth a little less than 30 per cent of Evraz.
“We are obviously going to watch carefully, but we are confident that just will not impact the hard working Canadians who are doing good work in companies across the country, including them.”
Canada was the first to cut off oil and gas imports from Russia, a move the U.S. and Europe are now attempting to follow with reductions to Russian imports.
Trudeau said the reality is that because much of Europe remains dependent on Russian oil and gas, Canada doesn’t have the infrastructure to offer an alternative supply in the short term, but wants to move more quickly to develop other sources of renewable energy such as hydrogen, and figure out “how to supplant in a shorter term their reliance on Russia.”
“The goal must be to try to develop those supplies quickly even as the world tries to develop new sources of renewable energy,” Toronto Star reports.
