(Ottawa) Canada grants Siemens permission to circumvent sanctions on Vladimir Putin’s regime. She gave him the green light on Saturday to send turbines which were being repaired at the Dorval plant, and which Germany was demanding to ensure the operation of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline.
Posted at 4:44 p.m.
The exemption is likely to irritate Ukraine, which had been lobbying to convince Ottawa not to throw ballast and thus risk damaging unity among Western allies with respect to the current sanctions regime against Moscow.
However, the balance ended up tipping in favor of Berlin.
“Canada will grant Siemens Canada a revocable, time-limited permit to allow the repaired Nordstream 1 turbines to return to Germany, supporting Europe’s ability to access reliable and affordable energy,” said the Minister. Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson in a statement.
Because “in the absence of a necessary supply of natural gas, the German economy will suffer very significant difficulties and the Germans themselves risk not being able to heat their homes as winter approaches”, adds- he in the same statement.
In passing, he accuses the Kremlin of taking Europe hostage as the winter months approach and of seeking to “exploit the instability they have created to justify further destabilization of European energy security”.
Despite the exemption granted, the Canadian government “will continue to work in coordination with [ses] allies and partners to impose severe costs on the Russian regime”, and will continue to impose sanctions on the more than 1,600 who strike Moscow, assured Minister Wilkinson.
In a statement sent on Friday, the Kyiv embassy in Ottawa asked the Trudeau government to ensure “respect for the current sanctions regime” in connection with this case.
The owner and operator of the 1,200 kilometer pipeline between Russia and Germany, Gazprom, is on Canada’s sanctions list. The company argued that in the absence of this equipment, a reduction in volume would be inevitable.
At the end of June, in an email sent to The Press, the German giant argued that “for technical reasons, the revision of these aeroderivative gas turbines, manufactured in Canada [pouvait] only be carried out in Siemens facilities in Montreal”.
Announcement of new sanctions
As if to sweeten the pill, Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Mélanie Joly, announced on Saturday the Trudeau government’s intention to impose new economic sanctions “against key economic sectors” in Russia.
The precise nature of the sanctions has not been specified, but this time it is aimed at industrial manufacturing.
The penalties will apply “to land and pipeline transportation as well as the manufacturing of metals and transportation, computer, electronic and electrical equipment, and machinery,” reads the statement released by his cabinet.
Once these measures are in place, Canadian companies will have 60 days to enter into contracts with the targeted industries and services, it also specifies.