November 18, 2014 - Ottawa, Ontario
Check Against Delivery
Good afternoon everyone, and welcome. I’m grateful to my friend Hugh Segal for the invitation to give the final address today.
It’s certainly a timely subject for this conference. This Friday marks the one-year anniversary since protests erupted on the Maidan in Kyiv.
I visited the Maidan for the first time just two weeks later—one of the most memorable, and inspiring, experiences of my life.
It’s striking to think about how much has happened since then.
In the following months, Prime Minister Harper was the first major world leader to visit and show solidarity with the people of Ukraine.
And, as I’m sure all of you will have seen, the Prime Minister made headlines around the world on Saturday when he told President Putin, to his face, to “get out of Ukraine.”
I was incredibly proud of the moral clarity he showed that day. But no-one should have been surprised by it, least of all Putin himself.
A global Canada is a clear-eyed one.
Our position on the Ukraine crisis has been clear from the get-go.
We have spoken out against Russia’s reckless provocations at every juncture. We have criticized its undermining of international norms at every summit.
We have led the way, with key allies, on implementing sanctions.
We are playing our part, and then some, in NATO reassurance measures with the deployment of air, land and maritime forces.
And we have been working hard to support Ukraine’s economic and political development.
Like I said, Canada’s position is clear. Ukraine’s position is clear. So today I’d like to explore Russia’s position.
Kremlin Propaganda
Winston Churchill famously said that “Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”
The Kremlin would take this as a compliment.
The old Soviet concept of Active Measures is starting to be talked about again, measures aimed at polluting the opinion-making process in the West.
Putin’s reply to the Prime Minister’s comment, when Putin claimed that Russia was not actually in Ukraine, was a classic example.
Another example came last week, when their defence ministry called me provocative—for calling their actions provocative.
The biggest challenge to truth in this generation is the active manipulation of information.
We see this domestically in Russia, but especially in its dealings with the wider world.
Unfortunately, the virtues of free societies can be exploited by those Machiavellian enough to do so.
And so, reality is being attacked by ambiguity.
This is being done both subtly and bluntly.
Wild conspiracy theories about the cause of MH17 have been successfully propagated to a worrying number of Russians and Russian-speakers in other countries.
It was in this climate that a simple tweet by Canada’s mission in NATO was re-tweeted almost 50,000 times around the world.
And all it did was point out on a map that Ukraine was Ukraine—not Russia.
There have been leaders who reacted to this campaign of smoke and mirrors with the firmness and clarity required. I’d pay tribute in particular to people like Radoslaw Sikorski, Frans Timmermans, and Carl Bildt.
But there is much to be done in separating truth from fiction.
Debunking the Kremlin Narrative
The biggest overall theme you see coming from the Kremlin is that Russia is the innocent party or, on the other side of the coin, that the West is the aggressor. I think it’s worth taking the time to unpack this.
There are four main false narratives.
First the idea that the current crisis is the logical culmination of the West’s failure to respect Russia and accept Russia as a genuine partner.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the West did not discount Russia. It was embraced as a key global player.
Russia was invited to join the G-8, and integrated into APEC.
The NATO-Russia Council was created to enable strategic dialogue.
And we partnered with Russia on many challenges of global importance, including non-proliferation, the Middle East, African development and the fight against terrorism.
We hoped, earnestly, that Russia would join the world as an able and proud partner, rather than return to becoming an instigator of conflict and chaos.
The second myth propagated by Putin is that NATO is a hostile organization: an inherent threat and a permanent adversary.
Not only has NATO reached out to Russia, but its activities and operations in Europe and across the globe have directly benefited Russia, from counter-narcotics work in Afghanistan to counter-piracy operations off the east coast of Africa.
For over 20 years, NATO has seen Russia as a strategic partner. NATO has no menacing intentions toward Russia, no matter how much Putin seems to wish otherwise.
Third, the idea that parts of Ukraine—Crimea, but also so-called Novorossiya or New Russia—rightfully belong to Russia.
This is also demonstrably false. Ukraine’s territorial integrity has been recognized by all members of the international community, including Russia itself. Indeed, its borders were recognized by all when it seceded from the Soviet Union in 1991.
In the Budapest Memorandum 20 years ago, Russia committed in writing to—I quote—“respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine.”
In this context, Putin’s illegal annexation of Crimea is even more shameful.
Finally, there is the notion that the Ukrainian people’s choices since the events of Maidan undermine Russia’s legitimate interests in Ukraine, and justify Russia’s actions.
This proposition isn’t just false, it’s offensive.
Ukrainians’ choice of a pro-reform and pro-European agenda, reaffirmed in parliamentary elections only three weeks ago, is theirs alone to make.
Putin has unnecessarily turned the issue into a choice between East and West.
It was in Moscow’s power to preserve a good relationship with Ukraine, but it preferred subjugation to partnership. Now, Moscow must accept that in the current circumstances it can have neither.
International Norms
The Putin regime is not only destabilizing Eastern Europe in a way not seen in decades, but also weakening the very foundations of our rules-based international system. Moscow is violating the most basic humanitarian, legal and, indeed, moral norms of international conduct.
Kremlin doublespeak extends to admonishing others to respect international law, even as Moscow continues to violate the core principle of the UN Charter: the sanctity of state sovereignty and territorial integrity.
I’ve often said at summits that we can’t allow one man in the Kremlin to think he can redraw the boundaries of Europe.
The entire world should be alarmed. This isn’t just about Ukraine. The absence of rules and of trust, compounded by aggression founded on deception, erodes stability and leads to chaos.
This is not a lesson lost on the Russian people, who have learned through bitter experience.
In this vein, Putin’s recent revisionist attempt to rehabilitate the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact is shameful. This—coming from the leader of the country that lost more souls in WWII than any other country.
In the context of the Ukraine crisis alone, Moscow has violated agreements reached in Geneva, Berlin and Minsk. Europe may soon run out of cities for the Kremlin to conclude its bad-faith agreements in.
Russia’s Self-Encirclement
I believe Putin’s actions have ultimately gone against Russia’s interests, and that it would be in their interests to indeed “get out of Ukraine.”
The notion of Russian Greatness is central to Russia’s political identity and runs through the works of its literary titans, including, unsurprisingly, some of Putin’s favourite writers.
I agree. Historically, Russia is indeed a great nation, populated by a proud people.
But Russia is a country whose greatness Vladimir Putin seems determined to undermine.
Despite his ostensible intention to ensure great-power status for Russia, his policies are having the opposite effect. He is isolating Russia and weakening it, politically and economically.
The Kremlin is making Russia’s historical fear of encirclement a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is turning erstwhile friends into adversaries. Its attacks on Ukraine and Georgia are the most obvious examples of this, but we shouldn’t forget Russia’s provocations against its other neighbours.
Russia routinely violates the airspace and waters of the Baltic States and of the Nordic nations. It cynically tests the resolve and responsiveness of its neighbours, NATO and non-NATO alike. At the G-20, we even see the crude, school bully tactic of sending warships on a course for Brisbane [Australia].
Wanton aggression against its neighbours—Western-leaning neighbours, not coincidentally—has become just another item in Moscow’s foreign-policy toolkit, a cynical expression of Clausewitz’s maxim that war is politics by other means.
But of course, in the most egregious, most immediate and most offensive action of all, Putin wages a murderous campaign in Ukraine, which has already cost an estimated 4,000 lives.
If he continues to push, he will go down in history as the man who destroyed all that was once positive in Russia-Ukraine ties—historical, religious, cultural, even fraternal bonds sacrificed to his ruthless expansionism in Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk.
Putin’s Russia has little to offer a forward-looking Ukraine. His Russia does not offer its own people, let alone the Ukrainian people, a future where families can prosper under the rule of law; where the will and the interests of the people matter; and where freedom of the press, of association, of religion can flourish.
Putin can only offer the hard power of a repressive machine that runs on intimidation, propaganda and self-censorship.
Putin’s Self-Sabotage
So the Kremlin is alienating its neighbours, countries that have a strong interest in a balanced and healthy relationship with Moscow.
In doing so, Putin’s policies have led to Russia’s expulsion from the G‑8 and sanctions from dozens of our partners and allies across the globe.
The sanctions he has brought upon his country are further weakening an economy already enfeebled by cronyism and corruption. As if this were not enough, Putin has further undermined Russians’ already declining purchasing power by banning key food imports in a self-defeating reaction to international sanctions. Indeed, Russia’s own central bank has warned of increased inflation because of the agri-food ban.
In addition, Russia’s oil and gas clients are now scrambling for alternatives. Putin is himself removing from the deck what he has always seen as Russia’s political and economic ace in the hole: energy.
Moscow’s recent gas deals with China, negotiated under the pressure of international sanctions, are a good illustration of his reduced leverage on the world stage. Some have called it old wine in new bottles, and they’re right.
But let us not forget the other cost to Russia of Putin’s campaign in Ukraine: the deaths of untold numbers of soldiers, sent to kill and to die on a front whose existence Putin persists in denying. How many more Russian mothers will lose their sons before the Kremlin relents?
Just last week, military trucks labelled “Cargo 200”—Russia’s military code for soldiers killed in action—were seen by OSCE observers crossing into Ukraine from Russia, and back again. These and soldiers’ fresh graves in Pskov, home to many of the troops sent to Ukraine, bear sad testament to the heavy price Putin continues to demand of his people for the privilege of pursuing a false path to global influence.
Looking Forward
It doesn’t have to be this way.
The Russian people have, and deserve, a prominent place in today’s international order. The Russians have been a proud people for centuries, and we must respect this legitimate pride and desire for recognition. But these do not have to be channeled into the Kremlin’s brand of virulent nationalism.
The Russian people have the capacity to be patriotic without being nationalistic.
Fraternal without being overbearing.
Respected instead of feared.
Post-war Germany offers a shining example of how patriotism can flourish without chauvinism.
Putin has attempted to hijack the narrative, for both domestic and international purposes. He frames relationships in adversarial terms, and his militarism affirms this approach. But we can speak past him.
We are friends of the Russian people. Let’s not be shy about saying it, including to the Russian people directly.
If history has taught us anything, it is that Russia’s greatness derives from the people—from their culture, from their creativity in so many spheres, from their industriousness, from their bravery and indeed, from the resilience of the “Russian soul.”
This aggression in Ukraine is not worthy of the Russian people.
The international community can’t afford to not speak out clearly against it.
And neither can Russia.
Thank you.
Contacts
Media Relations Office
Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada
343-203-7700
media@international.gc.ca
Follow us on Twitter: @DFATDCanada
Like us on Facebook: Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada-DFATD
