WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th February, 2023) If Canada wishes to hear Russia's position first hand, Moscow stands ready to do so but the Trudeau government at present remains willfully ignorant, Russian Ambassador in Ottawa Oleg Stepanov told Sputnik.
"I have said more than once to our Canadian interlocutors that the Russian leadership is open to dialogue. If Ottawa is interested in hearing Moscow's position first hand and not by being told by its older brother, we are ready," Stepanov said. "For now, Trudeau's team remains ignorant at will."
When asked about Canada's position on holding peace talks on Ukraine, Stepanov said, "Official Ottawa is in favor of our strategic defeat."
Stepanov said that a change in Canada's position under the current political class, which has decided to support neo-Nazism in Europe - the vote of Canada in the UN General Assembly on this issue is a litmus test - is possible only with a direct command from the United States.
"(That is) if Washington considers that it is easier for the United States' security to return to finding a new balance of interests with Russia. Canada does not currently have a sovereign foreign policy. It's sad, but true. We, Russia, would like it to be different," he said.
Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, responding to requests by the breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics to defend them from intensifying attacks by Ukrainian troops. The countries of the collective West, including Canada, have imposed comprehensive sanctions against Russia and provided military support for Ukraine.
Stepanov made the remarks on the occasion of Diplomats' Day, which is traditionally celebrated in Russia on February 10 and honors Russian diplomatic staff of the past and present. The holiday was created in 2002 by a presidential decree and references February 10, 1549, when the Posolsky Prikaz - Russia's first foreign affairs agency - was first mentioned in official chronicles.
