WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th February, 2023) Relations between Russia and Canada are in "deep freeze" per Ottawa's choosing and inter-state contacts are maintained but can be described as formally cold, Russian Ambassador in Ottawa Oleg Stepanov told Sputnik.
"Russian-Canadian relations are now in a deep freeze. Since 2014, through no fault of ours, Ottawa has unilaterally decided to curtail most of the interaction formats," Stepanov said. "After February 24 last year, regional and scientific-academic cooperation fell under the knife."
Stepanov, however, noted that in terms of maintaining the channel of interstate relations, opportunities for communication remain.
"But perhaps one can characterize them as official cold," he said.
On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine in response to requests by the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics to help defend them from intensifying attacks by Ukrainian troops.
The countries of the collective West, including Canada, responded by imposing comprehensive sanctions against Russia and providing military aid to Ukraine in the amount of dozens of billions of Dollars.
Stepanov spoke to Sputnik on Diplomats' Day, which is traditionally celebrated in Russia on February 10 and honors Russian diplomatic staff, past and present. The holiday was created in 2002 by presidential decree, in reference to February 10, 1549, the date when the Posolsky Prikaz, Russia's first foreign affairs agency, was first mentioned in official chronicles.
