“It’s essential that we maintain the capacity to escalate our pressure and that’s exactly what we are doing,” explained Baird during a teleconference with representatives of the Ukrainian Canadian media, Jan. 28.
Well the time to escalate is now.
While financial sanctions imposed by Canada are not going to have any real effect since Ukraine’s oligarchs don’t have many financial assets in Canada, imposing them will nevertheless send a very important symbolic message to the European Union – which is where they do stash their cash.
And the response of the European Union to the current crisis in Ukraine has been pathetically and shamefully weak. Led by Germany which has abandoned any sense of principle for the sake of Russian gas, the EU stubbornly refuses to impose any sanctions upon Ukraine’s criminal leaders despite the fact such sanctions could actually help defuse a particularly volatile situation which could lead to even more bloodshed.
While Germany’s slavish obedience to the whims of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is legendary, what is surprising is the equally timid response of the United Kingdom – a country with a proud history of demonstrating moral backbone when called for. When asked to explain this at a Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies symposium, Jan. 30, a trio of British academics could only speculate that Britain had many mutual political interests with Germany and was therefore following that country’s lead, (or, more accurately, the lack of it).
But Britain could play a crucial role in this crisis. So much Ukrainian and Russian oligarch cash has been stashed and property bought in that country that its capital is now referred to in such disparaging terms as “Londongrad” and “Moscow on the Thames.”
The largest of these properties is the 200 million pound (that’s $365 million in Canadian money) mansion of Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest man and key supporter of the Party of Regions.
Akhmetov has voiced concern with the continuing violence in Ukraine and could play a key role in finding a peaceful solution. Such a solution can only be accomplished if enough PRU members decide break out of Yanukovuch’s steely grip, give him a one-way ticket to Moscow, join in a provisional government with the opposition which would then bring back the 2004 constitution which limited presidential powers and call new elections for both president and parliament, which would be conducted in a fair and honest manner.
But as the vote on constitutional changes in the Verkhovna Rada on Feb. 4 demonstrated, not enough PRU deputies are ready to bolt at this time.
Now suppose the United Kingdom was to threaten Akhmetov with the confiscation of his property and assets in London? Would that not prompt him to break with Yanukovych and take enough deputies with him to forge a coalition with the opposition? You bet it would.
And Canada, being a fellow Commonwealth country which shares the same Head of State with the United Kingdom could play a crucial role in getting the UK on board to take such action.
The United Kingdom and the rest of the European Union have a moral duty to impose sanctions rigid enough to force Ukraine’s oligarchs into a compromise with the opposition.
And Canada has a moral duty to lead by example.
