Canada is imposing new sanctions against Russian individuals and entities who are accused of supporting Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, but also mercenary violence in Africa.
Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly announced new sanctions on Thursday against 38 individuals and 25 Russian entities. The list focuses on the paramilitary group Wagner, which has deployed fighters to Ukraine and countries in Africa.
The sanctions also target Russia’s nuclear and drone industries, as well as artists and cultural entities, in response to that country’s attacks on Ukraine’s nuclear and cultural sites, and the Kremlin’s attempts to “Russify” Ukrainian culture.
World Affairs specifies in a press release that these new sanctions also target this time “Russian singers, actors and filmmakers, as well as entities and senior officials of the Russian cultural sector, such as the Minister of Culture and the heads of the main museums”.
Among those added to the list on Monday are pop singer Zara and actress Maria Shukchina, as well as Readovka media and mobile network operators.
Persons sanctioned cannot have business dealings with Canadians or travel to Canada.
French MPs have called on the European Union to add the Wagner Group to its list of terrorist entities, after countries like Lithuania applied their own national labels to the group.
The Conservatives in the Commons had called on Ottawa to put the Wagner Group on Canada’s list of “terrorist organizations,” but senior officials testified in June that the move could make it harder to prosecute Russia for war crimes.
The political director for international security at Global Affairs Canada argued that a terrorist designation would differentiate the activities of the Wagner group from those of the Kremlin, despite the company having deep ties to Moscow. “If we find it difficult to associate Wagner’s actions with the Russian state, it will be more difficult to hold the president [Vladimir] Putin responsible for these atrocities”, testified Heidi Hulan.
“I am in regular contact with the UK and the US on a wide variety of issues,” she said. We discussed Wagner. I can tell the committee that none of these colleagues discussed with me the intention of listing Wagner as a terrorist entity. »