Sanctions on Putin, Lavrov Signal Canada, Allies Seek to Rupture Ties With Russia, Envoy Says

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Ottawa’s move to impose sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is totally unacceptable and contradicts all principles of both interstate relations and diplomatic ethics, Russian Ambassador in Ottawa Oleg Stepanov told Sputnik.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Friday that Canada would impose sanctions on Putin and other senior officials, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Stepanov stressed that “the decision of Trudeau's Cabinet is totally unacceptable” as “It contradicts all principles of interstate relations and diplomatic ethics.”

“By taking such steps, the Government of Canada is in line with similar actions of other Western countries, which for 8 years not only did not notice the genocide perpetrated by the Ukrainians against their own people in the east of Ukraine, but also actively supported and fueled this genocide,” Stepanov said.

He noted that “all this suggests that the collective West essentially follows the policy of Hitler's Germany, for which the Russians and the people of Ukraine, who did not recognize the Nazi oppression during the World War II, were sub-humans.”

“The current period will later be written in the black book of Canadian history,” the Ambassador added. “This is a complete disrespect for the history of their country and the generation of Canadians who contributed to the victory over Nazism. But now their grandchildren are turning themselves into agents of the evil against which their grandfathers fought.”

He called the planned sanctions "an unprecedented case at a scale when the Head of State and the Minister of Foreign Affairs are sanctioned, thereby cutting off any opportunity for a dialogue." Stepanov noted that “it is difficult to analyze in a sensible way what goals the West is pursuing by taking such absurd steps.”

“If you look at it from a practical point of view, this unprecedented step indicates that Canada and its Western allies are deliberately bringing themselves to the threshold of breaking off all relations with Russia crossing which is difficult to imagine a civilized return to normality,” he said.

Stepanov also said that there will be retaliatory measures, but they will be taken in Moscow.

“In the complex of what happened today, in the complex of all things,” the Ambassador added. “The Foreign Ministry has already said that we've reached the point of no return. It looks like it. This is unprecedented.”

On Thursday, Russia began a special operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine. The Russian Defense Ministry said the special operation is targeting Ukrainian military infrastructure only and the civilian population is not in danger. Moscow says it has no plans to occupy Ukraine.