Canada banned almost all imports from Russia after the start of the CWO – Kommersant

Russian Ambassador to Canada Oleg Stepanov said that after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, Ottawa initiated a complete curtailment of economic ties with Moscow. This led to a noticeable reduction in trade turnover between the two countries.

“With the start of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, Ottawa actually initiated a total blocking of Russian-Canadian economic ties. Due to such unfriendly actions, bilateral trade is dying. Trade turnover for 11 months of 2023 amounted to about $83 million. For comparison: at the end of 2021 – $2.2 billion,” said “RIA News” Mr. Stepanov.

According to the diplomat, the Canadian authorities “adopted about 60 packages of anti-Russian sanctions,” which affect most sectors of the economy. In addition, as Oleg Stepanov explained, the Canadian leadership “banned almost all imports from the Russian Federation.” Also, after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, Canadian airspace and waters were closed to aircraft and ships associated with Russia or its citizens.

The ambassador claims that Canadian investors “were forced to curtail their work or sell Russian assets due to strong political pressure from the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.” “The largest companies, which until recently remained committed to developing business in Russia, were forced to announce the suspension of operating activities or sell Russian assets,” he emphasized.

Last time Canada announced on the introduction of sanctions against the Russian Federation on November 11, 2023. Then the REN TV channel, the Izvestia newspaper, and the Parliamentary Newspaper were included in the sanctions list. The restrictions also included singer Jasmine (real name Sarah Shor), former Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, and director general of the Russian International Affairs Council Ivan Timofeev. At the same time, three former top managers of Sberbank were excluded from the sanctions list, including former first deputy chairman of the board Lev Khasis.

Alexander Kislov