Russia Issues Demarche to Canadian Diplomat Over Alleged 'False Accusations'

Russia summoned on Friday the deputy head of Canada's embassy in Moscow in connection with "false accusations" of allegedly planned "Russian sabotage" against NATO countries.

"On November 8, the Vice Head of the Canadian diplomatic mission in Moscow was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry, where he was handed an official note with a protest in connection with false accusations of allegedly planned 'Russian sabotage' against NATO countries with the mailing, including to addressees in Canada, of explosives in postal correspondence," said a statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Ottawa has accused Moscow of "hostile cyber activity" several times and had had earlier this week raised its concerns over the Russian involvement with regard to the sending of "dressed incendiary devices" aboard cargo aircrafts.

"The afore-referenced speculations, spread by the United States and its satellites in the context of the so-called hybrid war unleashed against Russia and in the context of the pumping up of the regime in Kyiv with modern weapons, as well as the participation of mercenaries from Canada in military actions on the side of the regime in Kyiv with the approval of the government of Justin Trudeau, point to probable preparation for a gross anti-Russian provocation," the statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry reads.

Moscow said the blame in such an escalation "under a false flag" will lie "utterly and completely" on countries, including Canada, that make "unacceptable accusations" against Russia.

"The Canadian side has been told that any hostile actions will not go unanswered – as they have not gone unanswered so far. The Canadian authorities must exercise prudence and refrain from harmful steps that deepen the confrontation with Russia," the Russian Foreign Ministry made it clear.
Russia-Canada relations have nosedived over the last few years with Moscow accusing the Justin Trudeau-led government of following a Russophobic course.

Russia presented a demarche to the Deputy Head of the Canadian Diplomatic Mission in Moscow in response to a decision made by Canada last year to seize the An-124 cargo airliner, which belongs to the Volga-Dnepr company, as it is "illegally held" at the Toronto airport since February 2022.

In September 2023, the Canadian Parliament recognized a Ukrainian veteran who had served in a Nazi military unit during the Second World War, and many countries, including Russia that described Trudeau's standing ovation as "outrageous", laid massive flak.

"The hostile actions of the Canadian government, which has been trying to surpass the United States in its anti-Russia sanction rage by constantly extending the Russian stop list with more names of politicians, cultural figures and their family members, as well as entire education institutions, will certainly not be left without a response.

"We will not tolerate the fact that Canadian liberals are playing with Nazism and will take the necessary steps in the context of the Russia-Canada relations that are going through a crisis on an epochal scale through the official Ottawa's fault," read a Russian Foreign Ministry statement in September 2023 after the Canadian Parliament honoured 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka during Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky's visit to the country.