Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced new sanctions in Germany on Monday against 74 people and businesses in Russia and Belarus, as G7 leaders discussed the threat to global stability posed by the invasion of Ukraine.
The new Canadian sanctions include 46 entities linked to the Russian defense sector and 15 Ukrainians who support the Russian occupation of the country. The Canadian government is also sanctioning 13 people linked to government and defense, and two entities in Belarus.
Trudeau said Canada also plans to sanction “state-sponsored disinformation and propaganda agents and entities controlled by senior Russian government officials.” Canada will also ban the export of advanced technologies that the Russian defense industry could use to improve its manufacturing capacity, such as quantum computers.
Canada has also banned the export of advanced technologies and goods that could be used in the manufacture of weapons in Belarus, as well as the import and export of a wide range of luxury goods between Canada and Belarus.
Prime Minister Trudeau also announced that Canada, along with the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan, will ban the importation of certain gold items from Russia, “which will have the effect of excluding this product from official international markets and to further isolate Russia from the international financial system”.
Russia was set to default on its foreign debt on Sunday for the first time since the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, further alienating the country from the global financial system. But Moscow calls any default “artificial”, because Russia has the money to pay its debts, but says the sanctions have frozen its foreign currency reserves held abroad.
Russia announced its own set of new sanctions against Canada on Monday, targeting 43 Canadians, including former prime minister adviser Gerry Butts and conservative strategist Jenni Byrne.
Virtual President Zelensky
The new Canadian sanctions were announced in a written statement Monday after a two-hour virtual meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and G7 leaders at their summit in Bavaria. Mr. Zelensky told the leaders that Ukraine would need help to rebuild its infrastructure.
The G7 leaders were gathered in a magnificent, bright room at the Schloss Elmau resort, a veritable castle on top of a mountain surrounded by flowering meadows. Mr Zelensky appeared on a screen watching the group with a stoic face against a gray backdrop.
The armed conflict in Ukraine is the main thread running through Prime Minister Trudeau’s meetings with his international counterparts, as was the case last week at the meeting of Commonwealth Heads of State and Government in Rwanda.
Mr Zelensky thanked the G7 leaders for their support and outlined Ukraine’s demands for tougher sanctions against Russia, more defensive military support and help rebuilding bombed and destroyed communities and infrastructure, after the conflict subsided, according to Canadian government officials who provided an account on condition of remaining anonymous. The Ukrainian president reportedly argued that governments should start thinking about this work now.
Mr. Trudeau had spoken with Mr. Zelensky on the first day of the G7 summit, to find out what he expects from the leaders. According to the Ukrainian president’s Twitter account, the pair spoke of increased defense support for the beleaguered country.
First Ukraine
Leaders of the world’s most developed economies spent their first meeting Monday discussing the war and listening to Mr. Zelensky’s pleas for more help.
Before the meeting, Mr Trudeau and the host of the summit, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, chatted during a walk from the mansion to one of the meadows, between the luxurious castle and the breathtaking view of the mountains of Bavaria.
“We are making sure that while helping Ukraine as much as possible, we are also avoiding a major conflict between Russia and NATO,” Scholz told media during a photo op with Mr Trudeau.
The previous night in kyiv, weeks of general calm had been shattered by Russian missile fire. The missiles hit a kindergarten and a residential building, killing a man and injuring a woman and a child, the capital’s mayor said.
If the leaders of the G7 are unanimous in their condemnation of Russia, they must also meet Narendra Modi, the Indian Prime Minister, invited to the summit, but who has also tightened economic and diplomatic ties with Moscow in recent months.
Mr. Trudeau will also meet Mr. Modi one-on-one, in a private meeting.