Prime Minister Justin Trudeau blasted Russian President Vladimir Putin while avoiding criticism of U.S. President Donald Trump today when asked about his reaction to Monday’s controversial press conference between the two leaders in Finland.
Speaking to reporters in Sutherlands River, Nova Scotia, Trudeau said Canada remains strongly opposed to Russia’s actions abroad.
“Canada has been unequivocal in our condemnation of Vladimir Putin and Russia,” Trudeau said.
“Whether it’s their illegal annexation of Crimea, their incursion into the Donbas in Ukraine and the fact that we’re glad to have 200 Canadian soldiers there helping to train Ukrainian armies. Whether it’s their interference in Syria and the support for the murderous Assad regime, whether it’s what they were responsible for in the chemical weapons attack in Salisbury on U.K. soil against British nationals.”
ListenCanada “stands very strongly” with eastern European nations like the Baltic states, where Canada leads a multinational NATO battle group in Latvia, Trudeau aid.
“I was just last week in Latvia meeting with the troops, the Canadian troops that are forming the leadership of the battle group that is holding the eastern fronts against a possible a possible Russian aggression,” Trudeau said. “Canada has always been clear and unequivocal in our condemnation of the actions of Vladimir Putin and Russia.”
Taking Moscow’s word for it
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a press conference after their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, Monday, July 16, 2018. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo)
Trudeau’s strong words come one day after a controversial summit between Putin and Trump in Finland.
Trump elicited a wave of criticism and condemnation in the U.S., even among his Republican allies, when during the joint press conference with Putin he appeared to accept Moscow’s often repeated assertion that poor relations between Russia and the West were precipitated by Western encroachment on legitimate Russian national interests, not Russia’s aggression in Ukraine or its actions in Syria.
Trump further infuriated his detractors when he appeared to side with Putin’s insistence that Russia had not interfered in the U.S. election over the nearly unanimous opinion of American intelligence agencies that the Kremlin did in fact meddle in the election that got Trump to the White House.
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