Patience with Russia for many Western states is running out. This mood will have repercussions at the G- foreign ministers meeting on April 22 in Toronto, ahead of the G7 Summit in Charlevoix, Quebec, in June.
Although the agenda was originally designed to stress jobs, gender equality and climate change, now—primarily due to Russia’s chaos-making– it will address the most important item for the troubling times: foreign affairs and security.
When the agenda was set last year, the world was significantly different. There was talk of a Russia’s attack on the US presidential elections and of the suspicious coziness with persons in critically important positions close to President Donald Trump. Today, however, that whiff of scandal has turned into a major stink. It envelopes the globe replacing the comfortable hug the US had formerly given its allies. Many fear America’s lost interest in global leadership. They question its commitment in spearheading global peace and security.
Meanwhile, the lack of a firm response has emboldened Russia further. It killed, lied, even mocked the sanctions levelled against it as punishment for the invasion of Ukraine’s sovereignty. However, by poisoning Great Britain’s citizens and the chemical weapons attack on Syrian civilians overstepped the mark.
Now, most democracies have had enough. They increased the sanctions by adding some of Russia’s most powerful oligarchs and officials to the list. After the United States weighed in earlier this month, the oligarch stocks dropped precipitously and the ruble tumbled. Oleh Deripaska– cited in Russia’s attack on America’s elections in conjunction with Paul Manaford– lost 40% of his aluminum company’s value in one day.
Russia is a threat to world peace. Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin, responsible for leveling the new sanctions said that President Vladimir Putin’s government “operates for the disproportionate benefit of oligarchs and government elites. The Russian government engages in a range of malign activity around the globe, including continuing to occupy Crimea and instigate violence in eastern Ukraine, supplying the Assad regime with material and weaponry as they bomb their own civilians, attempting to subvert Western democracies, and malicious cyber activities. Russian oligarchs and elites who profit from this corrupt system will no longer be insulated from the consequences of their government’s destabilizing activities.”
Typically, Russia’s response was to brush off blame, withhold contrition, and redirect responsibility on others. Its foreign affairs ministry puffed that western countries committed the atrocities and despite sanctions “Russia will not deviate from its chosen direction”. To President Putin this means that “Russia can do anything anywhere” and that its only allies are “the army and the navy.”
Canada, which holds the presidency this year, has invited Ukraine’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Pavlo Klimkin, to participate in the meeting with the G7 foreign ministers.
Ukraine’s vast experience with Russia have taught it valuable lessons on how to deal with its dangerous neighbor determined to dominate at any cost. Yet Ukraine has survived and is currently standing up for its rights against Russia’s war of aggression is awesome. It knows Russia’s military, security, cyber warfare, and propaganda machines aimed to destabilize world peace. Equally important, it understands Kremlin’s mentality; what it wants, and what it will endure to get it.
Unlike Russia, Ukraine has turned to the West. Unlike Russia, it wants to be more like us. It is paying daily with young lives for the defence of democratic values waging battle for sovereignty and the rule of law. It refuses to join Russia’s camp of rogue dictators to sow havoc, totalitarianism or oligarchies around the globe. Ukraine, therefore needs the G7 support.
Following Russia’s attack on Ukraine’s sovereign territory in 2014, Canada, like others, responded. Given both countries’ historic ties and Ukraine’s democratic aspirations, it became a “country of focus” in various areas including defence. Together with Britain and the US, Canada now provides training support and equipment for armed services “to help Ukraine remain sovereign, secure, and stable”.
This is mutually beneficial as Ukraine is the only country holding Russia from invading neighboring NATO countries. This is not lost on the members: Ukraine’s firm commitment to democracy and the rule of law has been put on the “aspiring” countries list. Its population supports membership. Russia, wanting Ukraine for itself, protests.
But there is more that the G7 can do. It needs to support Ukraine’s call for United Nations peacekeepers in the Donbas and on its boarders with Russia. Of course, Russia’s veto in the UN Security Council might prevent this. Then, the G7 needs to consider initiating another mechanism of support. Perhaps the formation of a temporary international administration? Given Russia’s disdain for the Minsk agreement, it must not be part of this new instrument.
It is wise that Canada invited Ukraine to the meeting. Clearly, it is a central player in determining global peace and security. Russia’s aggression has made it so.
Oksana Bashuk Hepburn, former government of Canada senior policy adviser and president of a consulting firm, writes on international issues.
