WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th February, 2023) The trade turnover between Russia and Canada will likely continue on a negative trajectory in 2023, Russian Ambassador in Ottawa Oleg Stepanov told Sputnik.
"Ottawa's unfriendly actions have significantly affected the dynamics of bilateral trade," Stepanov said. "According to statistical data from the third quarter of 2022, the trade turnover amounted to about $730 million. For comparison, trade turnover amounted to nearly $1.5 billion during the same period last year," Stepanov said.
The ambassador said the main share of transactions of about $400 million took place in January-February of 2022 - before the start of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine.
"We predict that the negative trend will continue this year," he said.
Stepanov pointed out that Canada had imposed sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project in order to capitalize on its oil and gas opportunities in Europe.
"Canada maliciously supported not only the sanctions but also the terrorist attack committed by well-known forces in the West against the Nord Stream international pipelines," he said, referring to the blowing up of the Nord Stream pipelines in September 2022.
On Wednesday, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published a detailed account backed by information from sources in the know that the United States was behind the blowing up of the Nord Stream pipelines.
On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine after the breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics requested help in defending themselves from intensifying attacks by Ukrainian troops.
The countries of the collective West, including Canada, imposing comprehensive sanctions against Russia and have provided military aid to Ukraine in the tens of billions of Dollars.
