Moscow says it reserves the right to respond to Ottawa’s stated aim of overthrowing the Russian government
The Russian Foreign Ministry has summoned Canada’s top diplomat to Moscow to file a formal complaint, after the Canadian foreign minister made “inadmissible remarks” earlier this month.
Mélanie Joly said at a press conference on March 10 that Ottawa was looking “Potential regime change in Russia.” Cabinet members are “see the potential” for this result through their efforts to isolate “the Russian regime” economically, politically and diplomatically, she said.
The Canadian charge d’affaires in Moscow, Brian Ebel, was summoned on March 20 to receive an official protest against the remarks, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. Moscow believes them “impermissible and contrary to Canada’s obligations under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Joly’s words were the “last russophobic attack” by a Canadian official, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has failed to disavow, the department said. He warned of a serious impact on bilateral relations, adding that Moscow reserves the right to “take relevant countermeasures based on the next steps of the ruling Trudeau regime in the context of its stated course of confrontation with Russia.”
Joly did the “regime change” remarks shortly after Ottawa announced the latest round of economic sanctions against Russia, which included restrictions on steel and aluminum trade. She later doubled down on her use of that term, saying she always made a distinction “between the regime and the people of a given country”.
Canada has joined the United States in its campaign to cripple the Russian economy through sanctions, which have been tightened since hostilities began in Ukraine last year. Moscow considers these measures to be part of a proxy war against it, waged by Western nations.
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