The economic sanctions imposed on Russia put Canada in a difficult position as it must decide whether to hand over to the Russian company Gazprom a turbine that would be needed to supply gas to Germany, even if Ukraine would oppose this decision.
Questioned by The Canadian Press on Friday morning, the Minister of Natural Resources, Jonathan Wilkinson, acknowledged that Canada finds itself stuck between the tree and the bark and that regardless of its decision, some partners could be offended.
“We are discussing this with the Ukrainian government and the German government and it is not a simple question”, summed up Minister Wilkinson.
The Reuters news agency was the first to report that Ukraine objected to Canada handing over a piece of equipment for Gazprom’s Nord Stream pipeline.
The turbine is in Canada “to be refurbished”, according to Minister Wilkinson, who did not explain how it ended up in the country. According to Reuters, it would be in one of the factories of Siemens, a German company which has various facilities in Canada.
The natural resources minister clarified to The Canadian Press that the Gazprom pipeline “supplies not only Germany, but a number of other European countries with gas, and the Russian government is using the turbine as an excuse to reduce gas supplied to Germany and other countries”.
The situation “is not simple”, repeated Jonathan Wilkinson, explaining that Canada “must be sensitive to the fate of the Ukrainians” and “continue to fully support the sanctions against Moscow”, but on the other hand, ” the purpose of the sanctions is not to penalize our allies and thus destroy the economy of Germany, Italy, Slovakia and Austria”.
He added that “we are working to try to find a solution that will work for everyone”.
In response to the invasion of Ukraine, Canada imposed various sanctions on the Russian oil industry.
For example, on June 8, Minister Mélanie Joly announced “an export ban on 28 services essential to the operation of the oil, gas and chemical industries, including technical, management, accounting and advertising services. The export ban on oil, gas and chemical services targets an industry that accounts for about 50% of Russia’s federal budget revenue.”