Section: National Newswatch (Canada)
No easy solution for Vladimir Putin and Russia
As economic gloom settles over Moscow, parts of the Russian capital have become Potemkin villages. The most splendid of these still prosperous looking facades is Moscow City, a shiny $14 billion forest of glass and steel skyscrapers that includes four of Europe’s five tallest buildings with the tallest building of all still under...
Ukraine votes to drop non-aligned status and work towards Nato membership
Ukraine’s parliament has voted to drop the country’s non-aligned status and work towards Nato membership. Russia reacted quickly to the move, calling it an “unfriendly step” that will only “add to nuisances” in ties. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had pledged to apply for Nato membership due to Russia’s support for rebels...
Canada under pressure to strengthen Ukraine crisis response
The Conservative government is under pressure over its refusal to provide “lethal” military aid to Ukraine or to sanction three Russians tied to both Vladimir Putin and Canadian businesses. The government announced economic sanctions and travel bans against 11 additional Russian officials and nine Ukrainian separatist leaders last week in...
Ambassador Alexander Darchiev: ‘Crimea is Russia – once and forever’
Russia will not change course in Crimea – but insists that diplomacy, not sanctions, will resolve the crisis, says Moscow’s new ambassador to Canada. In an exclusive interview with CBC News Network’s Power & Politics – the first since he assumed the post three weeks ago – a defiant Alexander Darchiev said Russia has no intention...
Canada faces new Cold War in Europe and hot war against ISIL in Iraq in 2015
OTTAWA – It could very well be that 2014 is remembered as the year when Canada traded one shadow war for possibly two others.The flag was barely folded and put away in Kabul, marking a formal end to more than 12 years of counter-insurgency war against the ghostly Taliban, before CF-18s were dispatched to begin pounding extremist targets in...
Federal polls show race is tightening but can’t explain the reasons why
OTTAWA – A spate of public opinion surveys this autumn has prompted the usual end-of-year parsing of political fortunes and chin-stroking prognostications about a federal election that may still be 10 months in the future.Stephen Harper’s Conservatives are up. Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are down. Tom Mulcair’s New Democrats...
Ukraine crisis: Obama orders ban on Crimea trade
US President Barack Obama has ordered a ban on the export of goods, technology and services to Crimea. The executive order also imposes new sanctions on Russian and Ukrainian individuals and companies. Mr Obama said the move showed the US would never accept Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March. Similar measures agreed by the European...
Canada sending HMCS Fredericton to Mediterranean Sea over Ukraine crisis
Canada is sending another one of its frigates to help a NATO maritime force aiming to provide reassurance to eastern European allies that are jittery over the crisis in Ukraine. The Defence Department says HMCS Fredericton will deploy in the coming weeks to replace HMCS Toronto in the Mediterranean Sea. HMCS Toronto has been in the area since...
Russians face oil-sector sanctions, new travel restrictions, over Ukraine
OTTAWA – Canada is once again imposing new sanctions against Russia in response to its incursions into Ukraine.The latest sanctions target 20 Russian and Ukrainian individuals and include new export restrictions on technologies used in Russia’s oil sector.The sanctions against individuals involve freezing of assets and travel bans.But...
Transcript: Harper explains why he still wants to be prime minister
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has spent the last year balancing the budget in preparation for an expected 2015 election campaign, a fight which Canada’s sixth longest-serving prime minster is already waging by announcing massive tax cuts for families. He’s condemned Russia for invading Ukraine and annexing Crimea, sent Canadians on a...
