Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister, Chrystia Freeland, warns that economic sanctions imposed on Russia in support of Ukraine could also affect the Canadian economy.
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“There could be collateral damage in Canada,” Ms. Freeland said. In order to be truly effective, to have an impact, we have to be prepared for some adverse consequences on our own economy.”
The collapse of the rouble, the Russian currency, is already shaking international markets, and the explosion in the price of oil is pushing the price of all consumer goods upwards.
But the finance ministers of the G7 countries will not stop there. They are ready to “cause the collapse of the Russian economy” to stop Vladimir Putin, said French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire.
Minister Freeland has signaled that additional sanctions against Russia are in the works and will be announced shortly.
Alberta is particularly exposed to economic sanctions against Moscow and the entourage of Vladimir Putin.
The Alberta Investment Management Corporation, an institutional investor that manages several public funds and pension plans, holds $159 million in direct and indirect investments exposed to Russia.
Additionally, two powerful Russian oligarchs, Roman Abramovich and Igor Makarov, have interests in the province’s oil and gas industry.
These two billionaires close to Putin are not on the list of 58 Russian individuals and companies sanctioned by Ottawa for the moment. But Ms. Freeland does not rule out expanding this list.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney himself has already called on Ottawa to go further with its sanctions in the name of human rights.
In an interview with Archyde.com on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that if his country falls, Russian troops will be on NATO’s doorstep. That is why Minister Freeland maintains that “everything is on the table”.
“We have to be prepared to do hard things, expensive things, to avoid something that would be much more damaging to Canada,” she said.
“If Russia succeeds (in occupying Ukraine), we will have a very different world from the one we know and it will be a dangerous world for Canada,” she said when asked by the press if Ottawa was ready to go to war against Moscow.
On the military front, Defense Minister Anita Anand still rules out the possibility of imposing a no-fly zone in Ukrainian skies, as demanded by the Ukrainian president.
“It would be a severe escalation by NATO and it’s not on the table right now,” Anand said, since such a step would involve NATO shooting down Russian planes in flight to prevent them from flying. bomb the Ukrainian civilian population. This would be tantamount to going to war.
“It’s not about dragging NATO countries to war. The reality is that everyone was rushed to war, not by Ukraine, but by Russia,” President Zelensky replied to Archyde.com.