Russia as a threat?

Prime minister of Canada Justin Trudeau yesterday said:” Moscow’s clear desire for war is affecting Ottawa’s discussion about weapons shipment. One of the things that we have seen is that Russia is looking for excuse or reasons to continue and even escalate its aggression against Ukraine.”

PM continued:” It is important and responsible that we be planning for multiple contingencies and while I won’t get into operational details, I can tell you the Canadian Armed Forces, the Canadian Foreign Service, our multilateral partners, we are all looking at a range of possibilities and contingencies to make sure, that we are the best able to keep people safe and support the Ukrainian people.”

Let’s go back to history. Formation on North Atlantic Treaty Organization -NATO is dated on April 4th, 1949, when Western Union {UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxemburg} signed an agreement with the USA, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland about military alliance. On May 9th, 1955, NATO was enlarged up to West Germany and as a reaction, the Soviet Union established on May 14th, 1955, Warsaw Pact, which included Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union.

When in 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary of the Soviet Union, he started new reforms known as Perestroika and Glasnost {Restructuring and Publicity}. After that was so clear, the Soviet Union will soon fall apart and will lose all its position in Central and Eastern Europe. July 1st, 1991, 31st was Warsaw pact dissolved and on December 31, 1991, the Soviet Union officially ceased to exist.

I know, there is Crimea. But Crimea peninsula became a part of Russia in2014 because of the referendum, which is the most democratic institution. Referendum on joining Russia was supported by 96.7% of voters with 83.1% turnout according to official counts. Don’t even mention the referendum was the only reaction to the Ukrainian revolution in 2014.

What is really concerning is a PM speech. Canada well known as a peaceful country is sending this speech to the world as a signal something has been changed. From a country, which all history tried to build the piece and dialog between countries, to a country which brings more tension on geopolitical scene and from Canada created potential target.

– DB