https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poroshenko-no-fly-zone-1.6370760
Ukraine's former president calls for NATO no-fly zone, says country is 'fighting for Canada'
Defence minister says a no-fly zone would amount to a 'severe escalation'
Poroshenko said a no-fly zone would give the Ukrainian military a better chance to repel the Russian invasion, which ultimately would benefit Europe and the entire West.
"We're fighting for the security in Europe here, fighting for France, for Germany, for Poland, for Spain. And can you imagine, we're here fighting for Canada," Poroshenko said in an interview with CBC's Power & Politics.
Poroshenko spoke from downtown Kyiv alongside members of a Ukrainian battalion just minutes after air raid sirens were sounded.
WATCH | Former Ukrainian president says no-fly zone needed
The Russian military on Wednesday escalated its use of air and missile strikes against major cities where local military and civilians have mounted a more formidable defence than the Kremlin may have anticipated.
Poroshenko, armed with a handgun and wearing military clothing during his interview, said the enforcement of a no-fly zone "prohibited and protected by NATO" in Ukrainian airspace could shift the course of the war.
That request has not been entertained by various NATO officials because enforcement of a no-fly zone could amount to a direct confrontation between NATO and the Russian military.
"Putting in place a no-fly zone would be a severe escalation on the part of NATO and it is not on the table at the current time," Defence Minister Anita Anand said Tuesday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has in recent days pointed to his nation's nuclear arsenal in a bid to deter direct Western intervention in Ukraine.
No-fly zone might have given Putin 'second thoughts'
Ukrainian soldiers have successfully shot down some Russian planes and helicopters during the first week of the conflict. The Ukrainian military accomplished those victories after being armed by NATO members with various anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons.
"If we can do it, why we cannot do it together with NATO?" Poroshenko asked.
The former president also pointed to NATO's enforcement of a no-fly zone above Libya in 2011 during that country's civil war. He asked why a similar measure is not being considered now.
WATCH | Poroshenko says Putin must halt invasion
Retired general Rick Hillier, former commander of the Canadian military, has described a no-fly zone as a necessary response to Russian aggression.
"I know that NATO is a defensive organization but you don't start defence at your front door," Hillier said on Tuesday.
"That no-fly zone … Putin might have had second thoughts before he launched if we had done it."
Strategy against Russia not yet clear, says former commander
In addition to the risk of escalating a conflict with a nuclear superpower, others point to logistical and strategic challenges involved in establishing a no-fly zone.
Steve Day, former commander of Canada's Joint Task Force 2, said that any single member of NATO could veto a decision to implement a no-fly zone outside NATO territory.
He also said the United States has the only air force capable of successfully enforcing a no-fly zone, meaning any such decision would have to come from Washington.
Day said a no-fly zone should not even be considered until NATO members agree on a unified response to the crisis.
WATCH | Former Canadian special forces commander on the risks of a no-fly zone over Ukraine
"I've yet to hear a strategy about how we're going to support and defend Ukraine," Day told CBC's Power & Politics.
"You've got to be very serious about whether you're going to engage those Russian aircraft or not."
Despite a strong push by Russian forces towards Kyiv in recent days, Day predicted that Moscow's goal of toppling the government will be hard to achieve.
Poroshenko indicated that Ukrainians will keep fighting until the Russian forces withdraw.
"I can tell you that every single town, every single street, every single quarter and every single house would be a Ukrainian fortress and would be hell for the Russian soldiers," he said.
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Many Canadians saw through Trudeau's propaganda so they shut down the comment section very early
What makes you think everyone is less intelligent than you?
Not everyone is insane. Just Putin.
And it only takes one.
Canada's troop commitment to eastern Europe is exposing weak points in its military
Canada relies on allies for air defence — and its CF-18s are too old to go up against Russian defences
The difference between victory and defeat would depend on how quickly and effectively a country could mobilize and manoeuvre its forces.
That sort of mentality permeated the Cold War. It divided Europe into two heavily armed camps for decades and cast a long shadow of nuclear terror across three generations.
The tanks, barbed wire and big guns have been gone since the early 1990s. The Liberal government's recent activation of 3,400 soldiers, sailors and aircrew for duty with the NATO Response Force (NRF) brought with it a chilling echo of those long-ago times.
It also exposed some of the major shortfalls facing the Canadian military in both personnel and equipment.
The Canadian Army, for example, has no dedicated air defence to keep soldiers on the ground safe from attack helicopters and fighter-bombers. As former army commander and now chief of the defence staff Gen. Wayne Eyre told CBC News two years ago, Canada relies on its allies for that kind of protection.
According to several defence analysts, Canada's four-decade old CF-18s would be vulnerable to Russia's modern S-400 Triumf air defence system.
The Royal Canadian Navy, with its newly modernized frigates, is hamstrung when it comes to forming task forces because its dedicated replenishment ship has little in the way of defensive systems needed for a war zone. It would have to be outfitted to defend itself and senior defence officials have long argued that makes the MV Asterix unsuitable and highlights the need to construct dedicated joint support ships.
Canada's current military representative at NATO, Vice-Admiral Scott Bishop, focused on the positive while testifying before a House of Commons committee on Wednesday. He was asked about the serviceability of the fighter jet fleet and noted the country has been called upon to perform a number of NATO air policing missions.
A
firefighter walks among rubble in a building entrance after shelling by
Russian forces in Constitution Square in Kharkiv, Ukraine's
second-biggest city, on March 2, 2022. (Sergey Bobok/AFP/Getty Images)
"We get a lot of credit from our allies for the job our men and women are doing in those missions," Bishop said. "I would say we do not see any impact in terms of our ability to deliver to NATO what we have committed."
When asked recently about the possible commitment of thousands of additional military members to Europe, Defence Minister Anita Anand said Canada has the capacity to meet its alliance commitments, even with its relatively small force of roughly 65,000 regular members and 30,000 reservists.
But there's a difference between military capacity and sustainability.
The pandemic's effects on military readiness
In 2019-20, before the pandemic hit, the Department of National Defence (DND) estimated that 80.3 per cent of the military could meet its operational obligations when called upon, according to federal budget documents tabled last spring. A target of 100 per cent readiness was to be achieved by 2025.
But COVID-19 has played havoc with the training exercises and courses meant to keep soldiers, sailors and aircrew ready and sharp.
Exactly how the pandemic has affected military operational readiness is not clear because the department says no up-to-date figures are available. Personnel may be generally ready to go, but there are concerns about the state of Canada's military equipment.
WATCH | Retired Lt.-General Andrew Leslie calls for investment in Canada's military
"There is a risk that DND/CAF may have difficulty maintaining its materiel capabilities at the right level to support operations," the defence department's plans warned.
The budget documents show that in 2019-20, 98 per cent of the navy's ships and equipment were serviceable and ready to deploy as required.
Army, air force see decline in readiness
The army and air force were a different story. Only 65.4 per cent of army equipment and vehicles were considered serviceable — a steep decline from the previous budget year. The air force could muster only 60.8 per cent of its fleet for active service in the 2019-20 timeframe.
Canadian troops in Afghanistan used a phrase cribbed from the Americans to describe the Ottawa establishment's approach to the war: "The army is at war and the nation is at the mall."
It's that peacetime mentality that one former top army commander says Canada needs to set aside as it confronts the current crisis.
Retired lieutenant-general Andrew Leslie says the stakes for Ukraine and the world are unimaginably high. (CBC)
Retired lieutenant-general and former Liberal MP Andrew Leslie said previous Liberal and Conservative governments did move swiftly in some cases to equip the army for Afghanistan — but the effort quickly bogged down.
It took an independent, blue-ribbon panel led by former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley to demand that the military get all of the equipment it needed — including helicopters and leased drones — to fight the Taliban.
Leslie said the circumstances today are much more dire.
"This is different," he said. "This has the potential to be World War Three if we get it wrong, if we don't let deterrence do its job.
"And to make deterrence effective we have to do our job, which is to treat it with the urgency and the gravitas it deserves."
If western democracies like Canada "get this wrong, the sociopath that is leading this assault on the innocent people of Ukraine may think he can keep going," Leslie said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Send the troops in now, says Leslie
There is a Canadian battle group of 500 troops in Latvia and a commitment to send an artillery battery of 120 troops, along with another frigate for the alliance's standing fleet and an air force maritime surveillance plane.
Anand has said Canada is waiting for NATO's call to deliver the 3,400 additional soldiers, sailors and aircrew. But Leslie said he believes they should go now, following the unilateral reinforcement of garrisons in eastern Europe by the U.S. and the United Kingdom.
"We need the maximum number of troops that we've been promising NATO for years," he said. "So let's deliver as soon as possible.
"And by as soon as possible, I don't mean 30, 60, 90 days. I mean within a week, two weeks."
The equipment could follow those troops overseas, he added.
People
walk on a partially destroyed bridge in Bucha, Ukraine, on Wednesday —
seen in this still image taken from video — amid Russia's ongoing
invasion of Ukraine. (Reuters)
Canada's Ambassador to NATO David Angell, testifying before the Commons defence committee on Wednesday, said that the alliance has not yet seen any sign that Russia is prepared to attack targets outside of Ukraine.
NATO says it is prepared and has activated five defensive plans to respond should the situation escalate.
Because the Canadian military is small, Leslie said, it should change some of its regular routines in order to meet the challenge in eastern Europe.
For decades, the Canadian army has rotated its battalions through war zones and peacekeeping duties in deployments of six to nine months. With such a relatively large force going into eastern Europe, Leslie said, the army should recognize it needs to keep troops in theater — possibly for the duration, as it did during the Second World War.
"Worry about rotations later," Leslie said. "If they're going to be there for years, fine. If the troops are needed for six months or a year, they can go and they stay.
"This is an emergency. Just ask the people of Ukraine."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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Fire near Ukraine nuclear plant extinguished, says state emergency service
Warning: this story includes a graphic image
The latest:
- Fire broke out near a key nuclear power plant in Enerhodar, southeastern Ukraine, after Russian forces shelled the plant.
- Tentative
agreement to set up safe routes for people leaving Ukraine and for aid
to get in. A third round of talks between Russia and Ukraine is
planned.
- Canada prepared to welcome an 'unlimited number' of Ukrainians fleeing the war, immigration minister says.
- Ukraine's former president called for a NATO no-fly zone, said the fight against Russia is not just for Ukraine but for the security of Europe.
- What questions do you have about Russia's invasion of Ukraine? Send an email to ask@cbc.ca.
A fire at the Zaporitzhzhia nuclear power station in Ukraine, which broke out in a training building outside the plant's perimetre following an attack by Russian troops, has been put out, Ukraine's state emergency service said Friday.
Earlier, an official in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's office said the reactors had not been damaged and radiation levels were normal. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to not being authorized to speak publicly.
The plant's director also told Ukraine 24 television that radiation safety had been secured at the site.
The fire at the plant, the largest of its kind in Europe, prompted telephone calls between Zelensky and the leaders of the United States, Britain, European Union and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about the possibility of a nuclear disaster.
"If there is an explosion — that's the end for everyone. The end for Europe. The evacuation of Europe," he said in an emotional speech in the middle of the night.
Leading nuclear authorities were concerned — but not panicked — about the damage to the power station. The U.S. Department of Energy activated its nuclear incident response team as a precaution.
Zelensky also spoke with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland about the nuclear plant.
The IAEA reported it had been informed by Ukraine's regulator that there was no change in radiation levels at the plant. It later said in a tweet that the fire had not affected "essential" equipment, but said its Incident and Emergency Centre had been put into what it called a 24/7 response mode.
Earlier, Russian forces shelled the plant in the battle for control of the crucial energy-producing city of Enerhodar, and the power station was on fire.
Plant spokesperson Andriy Tuz told Ukrainian television that shells were falling directly on the Zaporizhzhia plant and had set fire to one of the facility's six reactors. That reactor is under renovation and not operating, but there is nuclear fuel inside, he said.
Firefighters could not get near the fire because they were being shot at, Tuz said.
Ukraine's foreign minister warned that if the plant explodes, it will be 10 times worse than the 1986 Chornobyl disaster, when a reactor went into meltdown and sent nearly 10 tonnes of radioactive material into the atmosphere and surrounding regions about 100 kilometres north of Kyiv. Two workers were killed immediately and another 30 died within weeks from radiation exposure.
A live-streamed security camera linked from the homepage of the nuclear power plant showed what appeared to be armoured vehicles rolling into the facility's parking lot and shining spotlights on the building where the camera was mounted. There are then what appear to be bright muzzle flashes from vehicles and then nearly simultaneous explosions in the surrounding buildings.
Enerhodar is a city on the Dnieper River.
2nd round of talks
The fighting at Enerhodar came as another round of talks between the two sides yielded a tentative agreement to set up safe corridors to evacuate citizens and deliver humanitarian aid.
While the huge Russian armoured column threatening Kyiv appeared bogged down outside the capital, Putin's forces have brought their superior firepower to bear over the past few days, launching hundreds of missiles and artillery attacks on cities and other sites around the country and making significant gains in the south.
The mayor of Enerhodar said Ukrainian forces were battling Russian troops on the city's outskirts. Video showed flames and black smoke rising above the city of more than 50,000, with people streaming past wrecked cars, just a day after the UN atomic watchdog agency expressed grave concern that the fighting could cause accidental damage to Ukraine's 15 nuclear reactors.
Weary Ukrainians flee as Russia bears down with round-the-clock attacks
Mayor Dmytro Orlov and the Ukrainian state atomic energy company had earlier reported that a Russian military column was heading toward the nuclear plant. Loud shots and rocket fire were heard late Thursday.
The Pentagon set up a direct communication link to Russia's Ministry of Defence earlier this week to avoid the possibility of a miscalculation sparking conflict between Moscow and Washington, according to a U.S. defence official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the link had not been announced.
Ukrainian leaders called on the people to defend their homeland by cutting down trees, erecting barricades in the cities and attacking enemy columns from the rear. In recent days, authorities have issued weapons to civilians and taught them how to make Molotov cocktails.
"Total resistance. … This is our Ukrainian trump card, and this is what we can do best in the world," Oleksiy Arestovich, an aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said in a video message, recalling guerrilla actions in Nazi-occupied Ukraine during the Second World War.
Why there won't be a no-fly zone over Ukraine
Civilians flee fighting
The two sides said that they tentatively agreed to allow cease-fires in areas designated as safe corridors, and that they would seek to work out the necessary details quickly. A Zelensky adviser also said a third round of talks will be held early next week.
More than one million people have fled Ukraine following Russia's invasion, the swiftest refugee exodus this century, the United Nations refugee agency said, as Russian forces continued their push for control of key cities.
"Hour by hour, minute by minute, more people are fleeing the terrifying reality of violence," UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said in a statement. "Countless have been displaced inside the country."
Ukrainian
servicemen stand by a military vehicle Thursday in Sytniaky, Ukraine,
west of the capital. Russia continues its assault on Ukraine's major
cities, including the capital Kyiv, a week after launching a large-scale
invasion of the country. (Anastasia Vlasova/Getty Images)
The UN also said the number of refugees could top four million.
"While the scale and scope of displacement is not yet clear, we do expect that more than 10 million people may flee their homes if violence continues, including four million people who may cross borders to neighbouring countries," according to spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
"It's been so fast and so shocking," Danny Glenwright, head of charitable organization Save the Children Canada, said of the mass movement of Ukrainians out of the country.
"Imagine, one day you've got your kids in school, and there's structure in their lives," he said. "The next day, they wake up, and they have to flee with really very little, over long distances in freezing conditions."
The growing humanitarian crisis at Poland-Ukraine border
UNICEF, the United Nations children's agency, has said that within Ukraine, 7.5 million children are at "heightened risk" as the conflict escalates.
In a statement earlier this week, UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell said that access issues on the ground and "rapidly changing front lines" have made it difficult to deliver critical supplies and services.
The mass evacuation could be seen in Kharkiv, a city of about 1.5 million people where residents desperate to escape falling shells and bombs crowded the city's train station and pressed onto trains, not always knowing where they were headed.
Families with children fled via muddy and snowy roads in the eastern region of Donetsk, while military strikes on the village of Yakovlivka near the eastern city of Kharkiv destroyed 30 homes, leaving three people dead and seven wounded, according to emergency authorities.
Halyna Yanchenko, a Ukrainian member of parliament, told CBC News Network Thursday that a Russian missile recently hit a couple of blocks from her home on the outskirts of Kyiv.
Yanchenko, who is still in the capital region, sent her children away to the western part of the country — and even still, she says, she doesn't know if they will be safe.
She called the fight against Russia a "matter of survival" and said civilians are being killed in the Russian attacks. The UN human rights office said on Thursday that it had confirmed 249 civilians have been killed and 553 injured in the first week of the conflict, with the toll having risen overnight from 227 deaths and 525 injured reported a day ago.
Ukrainian MP says Russian missile exploded near her Kyiv home
What's happening on the ground?
-
The situation in Ukraine's capital Kyiv is "difficult but under control," Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Thursday. Klitschko said there were no casualties overnight and that nighttime explosions were Ukrainian air defences striking down incoming Russian missiles. He said a heating system site damaged by Russian shelling on Wednesday would be fixed during the day.
-
On the far edges of Kyiv, volunteers well into their 60s manned a checkpoint to try to block the Russian advance. "In my old age, I had to take up arms," said Andrey Goncharuk, 68. He said the fighters needed more weapons, but "we'll kill the enemy and take their weapons."
-
In Borodyanka, a tiny town 60 kilometres northwest of Kyiv where locals had repelled a Russian assault, burnt out hulks of destroyed Russian armour were scattered on a highway, surrounded by buildings blasted into ruins.
- In the north, more shelling was reported in Chernihiv,
where emergency officials said at least 33 civilians had been killed
and 18 wounded in a Russian bombardment of a residential area. The
search for more victims in the rubble was suspended because of renewed
shelling.
- In the south, Mariupol city
council said Russia was constantly and deliberately shelling critical
civilian infrastructure in the southern port, leaving it without water,
heating or power and preventing the provision of supplies and the
evacuation of residents.
Cutting Ukraine's access to the coastline would deal a crippling blow to its economy and allow Russia to build a land corridor stretching from its border, across Crimea, which has been occupied by Russia since 2014, and potentially all the way west to Romania.
-
In Kherson, the Russians announced the capture of the southern city of Kherson, and local Ukrainian officials confirmed that forces have taken over local government headquarters in the vital Black Sea port of 280,000. But the U.S. believes that Russian forces have not yet taken over the city.
A senior U.S. defence official said Thursday the city could be used as part of a strategy for potentially moving to Mykolaiv and then onto Odesa.
Britain's defence secretary said it was possible the Russians had taken over, though that was not yet verified. If Kherson were to be captured, it would be the first significant urban centre to fall into the hands of Russian troops. -
From Kherson, Russian troops appeared to roll toward Mykolaiv, another major Black Sea port and shipbuilding centre to the west along the coast. The regional governor, Vitaliy Kim, said that big convoys of Russian troops are advancing on the city but said that they will likely need to regroup before trying to take it over.
Lavrov acknowledges civilian deaths
In a statement, the UN human rights office said most of the civilian casualties so far were caused by "the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multi-launch rocket systems."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov voiced regret for civilian casualties, insisting that the military is only using precision weapons against military targets, despite abundant evidence of shelling of homes, schools and hospitals. However, he tacitly acknowledged that some Russian strikes could have killed civilians, saying that "any military action is fraught with casualties, and not just among the military but also civilians."
Russia reported its military casualties Wednesday for the first time in the war, saying nearly 500 of its troops had been killed and almost 1,600 wounded.
A residential building damaged by recent shelling in Chernihiv. (Roman Zakrevskyi/Reuters)
Ukraine did not disclose its own military losses. A Facebook post from Ukrainian military officials said that Russia's forces had suffered some 9,000 casualties in the fighting. It did not clarify if that figure included both killed and wounded soldiers.
Putin himself said in remarks Thursday that the Russians were using "only precision weapons to exclusively destroy military infrastructure" and blamed reports that say otherwise on an "anti-Russian disinformation campaign."
In a call with Emmanuel Macron in which the French president asked him to halt the attack on Ukraine, Putin said he was determined to press on with the invasion "until the end," according to Macron's office.
In a video address to the nation early Thursday, Zelensky praised his country's resistance.
"We are a people who in a week have destroyed the plans of the enemy," the president said. "They will have no peace here. They will have no food. They will have here not one quiet moment."
"These are not warriors of a superpower," he said of the Russian forces on the ground. "These are confused children who have been used."
Oleg
Rubak, 32, an engineer who lost his wife, Katia, 29, in the shelling of
Zhytomyr stands on the rubble of his house, which was destroyed by
Russian bombing Tuesday. The shelling killed at least three people and
injured nearly 20, according to residents and local authorities. (Emmanuel Duparcq/AFP/Getty Images)
ICC team heads to region
An advance team left the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for "the Ukraine region" on Thursday to start investigating possible war crimes, its top prosecutor told Reuters in an interview. Their departure came hours after prosecutor Karim Khan said he would start collecting evidence as part of a formal investigation launched after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine that began on Feb. 24.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine are members of the ICC, and Moscow does not recognize the court, which was established in 1997 by the Rome Statute and opened in The Hague in 2002.
Though not a member of the ICC, Ukraine signed a declaration in 2014 giving the court jurisdiction over alleged grave crimes committed on its territory from 2014 onward regardless of the nationality of the perpetrators.
With files from Reuters and CBC News
Petro Poroshenko
Petro Poroshenko | |
|---|---|
Петро Порошенко | |
 Official portrait, 2014 | |
| 5th President of Ukraine | |
| In office 7 June 2014 – 20 May 2019 | |
| Prime Minister | Arseniy Yatsenyuk Volodymyr Groysman |
| Preceded by | Oleksandr Turchynov (acting) |
| Succeeded by | Volodymyr Zelenskyy |
| Minister of Trade and Economic Development | |
| In office 13 March 2012 – 4 December 2012 | |
| Prime Minister | Mykola Azarov |
| Preceded by | Andriy Klyuyev |
| Succeeded by | Ihor Prasolov |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 9 October 2009 – 11 March 2010 | |
| Prime Minister | Yulia Tymoshenko Oleksandr Turchynov (Acting) |
| Preceded by | Volodymyr Khandohiy |
| Succeeded by | Kostyantyn Gryshchenko |
| Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council | |
| In office 8 February 2005 – 8 September 2005 | |
| President | Viktor Yushchenko |
| Preceded by | Volodymyr Radchenko |
| Succeeded by | Anatoliy Kinakh |
| People's Deputy of Ukraine | |
| 3rd convocation | |
| In office 12 May 1998 – 14 May 2002 | |
| Constituency | Independent, Vinnytsia Oblast, District No.12[1] |
| 4th convocation | |
| In office 14 May 2003 – 8 September 2006 | |
| Constituency | Our Ukraine Bloc, Vinnytsia Oblast, District No.12[2][3] |
| 5th convocation | |
| In office 25 May 2006 – 15 June 2007 | |
| Constituency | Our Ukraine Bloc, No.33[4] |
| 7th convocation | |
| In office 12 December 2012 – 3 June 2014 | |
| Succeeded by | Oleksiy Poroshenko |
| Constituency | Independent, Vinnytsia Oblast, District No.12[5] |
| 9th convocation | |
| Assumed office 29 August 2019 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko 26 September 1965 Bolhrad, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union |
| Political party | SDPU(O) (1998–2000)[6] PSU/S (2000–2013) PRVTSU/PR (2000–2001) NU/NSNU (2005–2012) NASTUP/BOS (2013–2014) European Solidarity (2019–present) |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | 4, including Oleksii |
| Residence | Kozyn, Kyiv Oblast |
| Alma mater | Taras Shevchenko National University |
| Salary | ~€11,000, annual[7][8] |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Soviet Union |
| Branch/service | Soviet Army |
| Years of service | 1984–1986[9] |
Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko (Ukrainian: Петро́ Олексі́йович Пороше́нко, pronounced [peˈtrɔ olekˈs⁽ʲ⁾ijowɪtʃ poroˈʃɛnko]; born 26 September 1965) is a Ukrainian businessman and politician who served as the fifth president of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019. Poroshenko served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2009 to 2010, and as the Minister of Trade and Economic Development in 2012. From 2007 until 2012, Poroshenko headed the Council of Ukraine's National Bank. He was elected president on 25 May 2014, receiving 54.7% of the votes cast in the first round, thus winning outright and avoiding a run-off. During his presidency, Poroshenko led the country through the first phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War, pushing the insurgent rebel forces deeper into the Donbas Region. He began the process of integration with the European Union by signing the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement.
Poroshenko's domestic policy promoted the Ukrainian language, nationalism, inclusive capitalism, decommunization, and administrative decentralization. In 2018, Poroshenko helped create the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine, separating Ukrainian churches from the Moscow Patriarchate. His presidency was distilled into a three-word slogan, employed by both supporters and opponents: armiia, mova, vira. In translation from Ukrainian, it is: military, language, faith.[10]
As a candidate for a second term in 2019, he obtained 24.5% in the second round, being defeated by Volodymyr Zelensky. There was no true consensus in the expert community on why Poroshenko lost, with opinions ranging from opposition to intensifying nationalism, failure to stem corruption, dissatisfaction of overlooked Russian-speaking regions with his presidency, to dissatisfaction with Poroshenko's intense conflicts with other pro-Western politicians, such as Andriy Sadovyi and former President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili (with the latter being forced out of Ukraine)[11][12][13][14][15] and the rise of the pro-Russian Viktor Medvedchuk; Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and anti-corruption activist Denys Bihus accused Poroshenko and Medvedchuk of "secretly working together".[16][17][18][19]
Poroshenko is a people’s deputy of the Verkhovna Rada and leader of the party European Solidarity. Outside government, Poroshenko has been a prominent Ukrainian oligarch with a lucrative career in acquiring and building assets. His most recognized brands are Roshen, the large-scale confectionery company which has earned him the nickname of "Chocolate King", and, until its sale in November 2021, the TV news channel 5 kanal. He is considered an oligarch due to the scale of his business holdings in the manufacturing, agriculture and financial sectors, his political influence that included several stints at government prior to his presidency, and ownership of an influential mass-media outlet.[20]
Early life and education
Poroshenko's father, Oleksij Poroshenko (1936–2020),[21] was an engineer and later government official who managed multiple factories in the Ukrainian SSR. Little is known about his mother, Yevguenia Serguéievna Grigorchuk (1937–2004), but a Ukrainian newspaper said she was an accountant, who taught at a vocational and technical school of accounting.[22] He also spent his childhood and youth in Tighina (Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, now known as Bender and under de facto control of the unrecognized breakaway state Transnistria),[23][24] where his father Oleksii was heading a machine building plant[23] and where he learned Romanian.[25]
In his youth, Poroshenko practiced judo and sambo, and was a Candidate for Master of Sport of the USSR.[26] Despite good grades, he was not awarded the normal gold medal at graduation, and on his report card he was given a "C" for his behavior.[27] After getting into a fight with four Soviet Army cadets at the military commissariat, he was sent to army service in the distant Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic.[27]
In 1989, Poroshenko graduated, having begun studying in 1982, with a degree in economics from the international relations and law department (subsequently the Institute of International Relations) at the Kyiv University.[28] At this university he was friends with Mikheil Saakashvili who he would appoint as Governor of the Odessa Oblast (region) in May 2015 and who is a former President of Georgia.[29]
In 1984, Poroshenko married a medical student, Maryna Perevedentseva (born 1962).[26] Their first son, Oleksiy, was born in 1985 (his three other children were born in 2000 and 2001).[26]
From 1989 to 1992, Poroshenko was an assistant at the university's international economic relations department.[26] While still a student, he founded a legal advisory firm mediating the negotiation of contracts in foreign trade, and then he undertook the negotiations himself, starting to supply cocoa beans to the Soviet chocolate industry in 1991.[26] At the same time, he was deputy director of the 'Republic' Union of Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs, and the CEO "Exchange House Ukraine".[26]
Poroshenko's brother, Mykhailo, older by eight years, died in a 1997 car accident under mysterious circumstances.[30]
Business career
In 1993, Poroshenko, together with his father Oleksii and colleagues from the Road Traffic Institute in Kyiv, created the UkrPromInvest Ukrainian Industry and Investment Company, which specialized in the confectionery and automotive industries (as well as in other agricultural processing later on.)[26] Poroshenko was director-general of the company from its founding until 1998, when in connection with his entry into parliament he handed the title over to his father, while retaining the title of honorary president.[26]
Between 1996 and 1998, UkrPromInvest acquired control over several state-owned confectionery enterprises which were combined into the Roshen group in 1996, creating the largest confectionery manufacturing operation in Ukraine.[26] His business success in this industry earned him the nickname "Chocolate King".[31] Poroshenko's business empire also includes several car and bus factories, Kuznia na Rybalskomu shipyard, the 5 Kanal television channel,[32] as well as other businesses in Ukraine.
Although not the most prominent in the list of his business holdings, the assets that drew much recent media attention, and often controversy, are the confectionery factory in Lipetsk, Russia, that became controversial due to the Russian military intervention in Ukraine (2014–present), the Sevastopol Marine Plant (Sevmorzavod) that has been confiscated after the 2014 Russian forcible annexation of Crimea and the media outlet 5 kanal, particularly because of Poroshenko's repeated refusal to sell an influential media asset following his accession to presidency.
According to Poroshenko (and Rothschild Wealth Management & Trust) since becoming President of Ukraine he has relinquished the management of his businesses, ultimately (in January 2016) to a blind trust.[23][33]
Billionaires lists rankings
In March 2012, Forbes placed him on the Forbes list of billionaires at 1,153rd place, with US$1 billion.[34] As of May 2015, Poroshenko's net worth was about US$720 million (Bloomberg estimate), losing 25 percent of his wealth because of Russia's ban of Roshen products and the state of the Ukrainian economy.[35]
According to the annual ranking of the richest people in Ukraine,[36] published in October 2015 by the Ukrainian journal Novoye Vremya and conducted jointly with Dragon Capital, a leading investment company in Ukraine, president Poroshenko was found to be the only one from the top ten list whose asset value grew since the previous year's ranking. The estimate of his assets was set at US$979 million, a 20% growth, and his ranking increased from 9th to 6th wealthiest person in Ukraine. The article observed that Poroshenko remained one of the only two European leaders who owned a business empire of such scale, with Silvio Berlusconi of Italy being the other.
A total of €450 million is kept in an Amsterdam-based company registered in Cyprus, as a result of which his effective tax rate is 5% rather than the statutory tax rate of 18% in Ukraine. The company is likely to be worth much more, as the annual accounts published by the Dutch Chamber of Commerce only contain the book value of the shares, which is very likely to be lower than the market value.[37] After his election, Poroshenko lost the billionaire status as his net worth dropped by 40% to reach $705 million.[38]
Associated businesses
A number of businesses were once part of the Ukrprominvest [uk] which Poroshenko headed in 1993–1998. The investment group was dissolved in April 2012.[39] Poroshenko has stated that upon beginning his political activity he passed on his holdings to a trust fund.[26]
- Bogdan group (Poroshenko sold his share in connection with the collapse of its production after the financial crisis of 2007–2008 in 2009),[26] centered in Cherkasy
- Roshen group
- 5 Kanal and Priamyi television channels (he denies property relations with Priamyi[40]).
- Kuznia na Rybalskomu shipyard[26] in Kyiv
- International Invest Bank,[41] owned through a trust and along with Ihor Kononenko
- Ukrprominvest-Agro, an agrarian holding
- Zoria Podillia, an agrarian company near Haisyn, specializing in sugar production from sugar beets
- Podillia
- MAS-Agro
- Ahrofirma "Dniproahrolan"
- Ahrofirma "Ivankivtsi"
- Sevastopol Shipyard (lost in 2015 due to a corporate raid by the Russian occupational authorities in Crimea)
Early political career
Poroshenko first won a seat in the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian Parliament) in 1998 for the 12th single-mandate constituency. He was initially a member of the United Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (SDPU), the party led by Viktor Medvedchuk and loyal to president Leonid Kuchma at the time.[26] Poroshenko left SDPU(o) in 2000 to create an independent left-of-center faction and then a party, naming it Party of Ukraine's Solidarity (PSU).[26][42] In 2001 Poroshenko was instrumental in creating the Party of Regions, also loyal to Kuchma; the Party of Ukraine's Solidarity having merged into the Party of Regions, Poroshenko launched a new party with a similar name, the party "Solidarity.[43]
Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council
In December 2001, Poroshenko broke ranks with Kuchma supporters to become campaign chief of Viktor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine Bloc opposition faction. After parliamentary elections in March 2002 in which Our Ukraine won the biggest share of the popular vote and Poroshenko won a seat in parliament,[26][44] Poroshenko served as head of the parliamentary budget committee, where he was accused of "misplacing 47 million hryvnias" (US$8.9 million).[45] As a consequence of Poroshenko's Our Ukraine Bloc membership tax inspectors launched an attack on his business.[26] Despite great difficulties, UkrPromInvest managed to survive until Yushchenko became President of Ukraine in 2005.[26]
Poroshenko was considered a close confidant of Yushchenko, who is the godfather of Poroshenko's daughters. Poroshenko was likely the wealthiest oligarch[46] among Yushchenko supporters, and was often named as one of the main financial backers of Our Ukraine and the Orange Revolution.[47] After Yushchenko won the presidential elections in 2004, Poroshenko was appointed Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council.[26][28]
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In September 2005, highly publicized mutual allegations of corruption erupted between Poroshenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko involving the privatizations of state-owned firms.[48] Poroshenko, for example, was accused of defending the interests of Viktor Pinchuk, who had acquired state firm Nikopol Ferroalloy for $80 million, independently valued at $1 billion.[49] In response to the allegations, Yushchenko dismissed his entire cabinet of ministers, including Poroshenko and Tymoshenko.[50] State prosecutors dismissed an abuse of power investigation against Poroshenko the following month,[51] immediately after Yushchenko dismissed Sviatoslav Piskun, General Prosecutor of Ukraine. Piskun claimed that he was sacked because he refused to institute criminal proceedings against Tymoshenko and refused to drop proceedings against Poroshenko.[52]
In the March 2006 parliamentary election, Poroshenko was re-elected to the Ukrainian parliament with the support of Our Ukraine electoral bloc.[26] He chaired the parliamentary Committee on Finance and Banking. Allegedly, since Poroshenko claimed the post of Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament for himself, the Socialist Party of Ukraine chose to be part of the Alliance of National Unity because it was promised that their party leader, Oleksandr Moroz, would be elected chairman if the coalition were formed.[50] This left Poroshenko's Our Ukraine and their ally Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc out of the Government.
Poroshenko did not run in the September 2007 parliamentary election.[26] Poroshenko started heading the Council of Ukraine's National Bank in February 2007.[50][53] Between 1999 and 2012 he was a board member of the National Bank of Ukraine.[26]
Foreign Minister and Minister of Trade
Ukrainian President Yushchenko nominated Poroshenko for Foreign Minister on 7 October 2009.[53][54] Poroshenko was appointed by the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's parliament) on 9 October 2009.[55][56] On 12 October 2009, President Yushchenko re-appointed Poroshenko to the National Security and Defense Council.[57] Poroshenko supported Ukrainian NATO-membership. However, he also stated NATO membership should not be a goal in itself.[58] Although Poroshenko was dismissed as foreign minister on 11 March 2010, President Viktor Yanukovych expressed hope for further cooperation with him.[32]
In late February 2012, Poroshenko was named as the new Minister of Trade and Economic Development in the Azarov Government;[59][60][61] on 9 March 2012, President Yanukovych stated he wanted Poroshenko to work in the government in the post of economic development and trade minister.[62] On 23 March 2012, Poroshenko was appointed economic development and trade minister of Ukraine by Yanukovych.[63] The same month he stepped down as head of the Council of Ukraine's National Bank.[64]
Poroshenko claims that he became Minister of Trade and Economic Development to help bring Ukraine closer to the EU and get Yulia Tymoshenko released from prison.[27] After he took the post, tax inspectors launched an attack on his business.[27]
Return to parliament
Poroshenko returned to the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) after the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election after winning (with more than 70%) as an independent candidate in single-member district number 12 (first-past-the-post wins a parliamentary seat) located in Vinnytsia Oblast.[65][66][67] He did not enter any faction in parliament[68] and became member of the committee on European Integration.[27] Poroshenko's father Oleksii did intend to take part in the elections too in single-member district number 16 (also located in Vinnytsia Oblast), but withdrew his candidacy for health reasons.[69][70] In mid-February 2013, Poroshenko hinted he would run for Mayor of Kyiv in the 2013 Kyiv mayoral election.[71]
In 2013, the registration certificate of Solidarity was cancelled because for more than 10 years had not participated in any election.[43] Poroshenko then launched and became leader of the National Alliance of freedom and Ukrainian patriotism "OFFENSIVE" (NASTUP), which was renamed "All-Ukrainian Union Solidarity" (BOS).[43]
2014 Ukrainian revolution
Poroshenko actively and financially supported the Euromaidan protests between November 2013 and February 2014,[26] leading to an upsurge in his popularity, although[26] he did not participate in negotiations between then President Yanukovych and the Euromaidan parliamentary opposition parties Batkivshchyna, Svoboda and UDAR.[26]
In an interview with Lally Weymouth, Poroshenko said: "From the beginning, I was one of the organizers of the Maidan. My television channel — Channel 5 — played a tremendously important role. ... At that time, Channel 5 started to broadcast, there were just 2,000 people on the Maidan. But during the night, people went by foot — seven, eight, nine, 10 kilometers — understanding this is a fight for Ukrainian freedom and democracy. In four hours, almost 30,000 people were there."[72] The BBC reported, "Mr Poroshenko owns 5 Kanal TV, the most popular news channel in Ukraine, which showed clear pro-opposition sympathies during the months of political crisis in Kiev."[46]
Poroshenko refused to join the Yatseniuk Government (although he introduced his colleague Volodymyr Groysman, the mayor of Vinnytsia, into it), nor did he join any of the two newly created parliamentary factions Economic Development and Sovereign European Ukraine.[26]
On 24 April 2014, Poroshenko visited Luhansk, at the time not controlled by Ukrainian authorities.[23] Just like previously in Crimea he was met by a blockade of hundreds of pro-Russian locals at Luhansk Airport.[23] Poroshenko later claimed: "When I traveled to Luhansk Oblast, my car was fired at and there was an attempt to take our entire group hostage."[23]
2014 presidential campaign
Following the 2014 Ukrainian revolution and the resulting removal of Viktor Yanukovych from the office of President of Ukraine, new presidential elections were scheduled to take place on 25 May 2014.[73] In pre-election polls from March 2014, Poroshenko garnered the most support of all the prospective candidates, with one poll conducted by SOCIS giving him a rating of over 40%.[74] On 29 March he stated that he would run for president; at the same time Vitali Klitschko left the presidential contest, choosing to support Poroshenko's bid.[75][76][77][78]
On 2 April, Poroshenko stated, "If I am elected, I will be honest and sell the Roshen Concern."[79] He also said in early April that the level of popular support for the idea of Ukraine's joining NATO was too small to put on the agenda "so as not to ruin the country."[80] He also vowed not to sell his 5 Kanal television channel.[81] On 14 April, Poroshenko publicly endorsed the campaign of Jarosław Gowin's party Poland Together of neighboring Poland in that year's elections to the European Parliament, thanking Gowin's party colleague Paweł Kowal for supporting Ukraine.[82]
Poroshenko's election slogan was: "Live in a new way – Poroshenko!".[27]
On 29 May, the Central Election Commission of Ukraine announced that Poroshenko had won 25 May presidential election, with 54.7% of the votes.[83][84][85][86][87][88]
During his visit in Berlin, Poroshenko stated that Russian separatists in the Donbas "don't represent anybody. We have to restore law and order and sweep the terrorists off the street."[89] He described as "fake" the planned 11 May Donbas status referendums.[89]
Presidency
When it became clear he had won the election on election day evening (on 25 May 2014) Poroshenko announced his "first presidential trip will be to Donbas", where armed pro-Russian rebels had declared the separatist republics Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic and control part of the region.[81][90] Poroshenko also vowed to continue the military operations by the Ukrainian government forces to end the armed insurgency claiming: "The anti-terrorist operation cannot and should not last two or three months. It should and will last hours."[91] He compared the armed pro-Russian rebels to Somali pirates.[91] Poroshenko also called for negotiations with Russia in the presence of international intermediaries.[91] Russia responded by saying it did not need an intermediary in its bilateral relations with Ukraine.[91] As president-elect, Poroshenko promised to return Crimea,[91] which was annexed by Russia in March 2014.[90][92][a] He also vowed to hold new parliamentary elections in 2014.[94]
Inauguration
Poroshenko was inaugurated in the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) on 7 June 2014.[95] In his inaugural address he stressed that Ukraine would not give up Crimea and stressed the unity of Ukraine.[96] He promised an amnesty "for those who do not have blood on their hands" to the separatist and pro-Russia insurgents of the 2014 pro-Russian conflict in Ukraine and to the Ukrainian nationalist groups that oppose them, but added: "Talking to gangsters and killers is not our path".[96] He also called for early regional elections in Eastern Ukraine.[96] Poroshenko also stated that he would sign the economic part of the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement and that this was the first step towards full Ukrainian EU Membership.[96] During the speech, he stated he saw "Ukrainian as the only state language" but also spoke of the "guarantees [of] the unhindered development of Russian and all the other languages".[96] Part of the speech was in Russian.[96]
The inauguration was attended by about 50 foreign delegations, including US Vice President Joe Biden, President of Poland Bronisław Komorowski, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė, President of Switzerland and the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Didier Burkhalter, President of Germany Joachim Gauck, President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili, Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán, President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy, the OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feldman, China's Minister of Culture Cai Wu and Ambassador of Russia to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov[97][98] Former Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko was also present.[96][97] After the inauguration ceremony Tymoshenko said about Poroshenko "I think Ukraine has found a very powerful additional factor of stability".[99]
Domestic policy
Peace plan for Eastern Ukraine
At the time of his inauguration, armed pro-Russian rebels, after disputed referendums, had declared the independence of the separatist Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic and controlled a large part of Donbas, but were largely considered to be illegitimate by the international community.[81][90] After the inauguration, Poroshenko launched a "peace" plan envisioned to garner the recognition of the presidential elections in Ukraine by Russia, consisting of a cease-fire with the separatists (named "terrorists" by Poroshenko himself) and the establishment of a humanitarian corridor for civilians ("who are not involved in the conflict").[100] Poroshenko warned that he had a "Plan B" if the initial peace plan was rejected.[101]
Decentralization of power
In mid-June Poroshenko started the process of amending Ukraine's constitution to achieve Ukraine's administrative decentralization.[102] According to Poroshenko (on 16 June 2014) this was "a key element of the peace plan".[102] In his draft constitutional amendments of June 2014 proposed changing the administrative divisions of Ukraine, which should include regions (replacing the current oblasts), districts and "hromadas" (united territorial communities).[103] In these amendments he also proposed that "Village, city, district and regional administrations will be able to determine the status of the Russian language and other national minority languages of Ukraine in accordance with the procedure established by the law and within the borders of their administrative and territorial units".[104] He proposed that Ukrainian remained the only state language of Ukraine.[104] Poroshenko further proposed to create the post of presidential representatives who would supervise the enforcement of the Ukrainian constitution and laws and the observation of human rights and freedoms in oblasts and raions/raions of cities.[105] In case of an "emergency situation or martial law regime" they will "guide and organize" in the territories they are stationed in.[105] Batkivshchyna, a key coalition partner in the Yatseniuk Government, came out against the plan.[106][why?]
He repeatedly spoken out against federalization.[107][108] and did not seek to increase his presidential powers.[109]
1 July 2015 decentralization draft law gave local authorities the right to oversee how their tax revenues are spent.[110] The draft law did not give an autonomous status to Donbas, as demanded by the pro-Russian rebels there, but gave the region partial self-rule for three years.[110]
Dissolution of Parliament
On 25 August 2014, Poroshenko called a snap election to the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's parliament), to be held 26 October 2014.[111][112] According to him this was necessary "to purify the Rada of the mainstay of [former president] Viktor Yanukovych". These deputies, Poroshenko said, "clearly do not represent the people who elected them".[113] Poroshenko also said that these Rada deputies were responsible for "the [January 2014] Dictatorship laws that took the lives of the Heavenly hundred".[113] Poroshenko also stated that many of the (then) current MPs were "direct sponsors and accomplices or at least sympathizers of militant-separatists".[113]
Poroshenko had pressed for the elections since his victory in the May 2014 presidential election.[114][115][116]
On 27 August 2014, the party congress of All-Ukrainian Party of Peace and Unity adopted a new name: "Petro Poroshenko Bloc" (BPP).[117][43][118] In 2015, the Petro Poroshenko Bloc was renamed in "Petro Poroshenko Bloc "Solidarity"".[119]
Nuclear weapons
On 13 December 2014, Poroshenko stated that he did not want Ukraine to become a nuclear power again.[120]
Decommunization and deoligarchization
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On 15 May 2015, Poroshenko signed a bill into law that started a six months period for the removal of communist monuments and the mandatory renaming of streets and other public places and settlements with a name related to Communism.[121] According to Poroshenko "I did what I had to"; adding "Ukraine as a state has done its job, then historians should work, while the government should take care of the future".[121] Poroshenko believes that the communist repression and Holodomor of the Soviet Union are on par with the Nazi crimes of the 1940s.[122] The legislation (Poroshenko signed on 15 May 2015) also provides "public recognition to anyone who fought for Ukrainian independence in the 20th century",[123] including the controversial Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) combatants led by Roman Shukhevych and Stepan Bandera.[121]
Poroshenko said in an interview with Germany's Bild newspaper that "If I am elected, I'll wipe the slate clean and will sell the Roshen concern. As president of Ukraine, I will and want to only focus on the well-being of the nation."[124]
On 23 March 2015, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko accepted the resignation of billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky as governor of Dnipro region over the control of oil companies.[125] "There will be no more oligarchs in Ukraine," Poroshenko said adding that "oligarchs must pay more [taxes] than the middle class and more than small business." The president underscored that "the program of de-oligarchization will be put into life". Poroshenko promised that he will fight against the Ukrainian oligarchs.[126]
In December 2018, President Poroshenko confirmed the status of veterans and combatants for independence of Ukraine for the armed units of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).[127]
Language policy
In 2016, a new rule came into force requiring Ukraine's radio stations to play a quota of Ukrainian-language songs each day. The law also requires TV and radio broadcasters to ensure 60% of programs such as news and analysis are in Ukrainian.[128]
On 25 September 2017, a new law on education was signed by President Poroshenko (draft approved by Rada on 5 September 2017) which says that the Ukrainian language is the language of education at all levels except for one or more subjects that are allowed to be taught in two or more languages, namely English or one of the other official languages of the European Union. The law stipulates a 3-year transitional period to come in full effect.[129][130] In February 2018, this period was extended until 2023.[131] The law was condemned by PACE that called it "a major impediment to the teaching of national minorities".[132] The law also faced criticism from officials in Hungary, Romania and Russia.[133] (Hungarian and Romanian are official languages of the European Union, Russian is not).[134][135] Ukrainian officials stressed that the new law complies fully with European norms on minority rights.[136]
The law does state that "Persons belonging to indigenous peoples of Ukraine are guaranteed the right to study in public facilities of preschool and primary education in the language of instruction of the respective indigenous people, along with the state language of instruction" in separate classes or groups.[130] PACE describes this as a significant curtailing of the rights of indigenous peoples carried out without consultations with their representatives.[132] On 27 June 2018, Ukrainian foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin stated that following the recommendation of the Venice Commission the language provision of the (September 2017) law on education will not apply to private schools and that every public school for national minorities "will have broad powers to independently determine which classes will be taught in Ukrainian or their native language."[137][138]
On 15 May 2019, Poroshenko signed the law "On provision of the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the State language"[139][140][nb 1]
Religious policy
Under Poroshenko the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine was created by the merging of the UOC-KP and the UAOC, and two members of the UOC-MP in a unification council which also elected Epiphanius I as its first primate. The 11 October 2018 announcement by Ecumenical Patriarchate that it would – among other things – grant autocephaly to a Ukrainian church is one of the reasons which created the Moscow–Constantinople schism when the Moscow Patriarchate severed full communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate on 15 October 2018.
Corruption
Corruption in Ukraine is a widespread problem; although there are signs that during Poroshenko presidency it decreased (thanks to the Prozorro digital system).[142] Poroshenko signed a decree to create the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine to comply with the requirements of the International Monetary Fund. Since 2015, the Bureau has sent 189 cases to court, but no one significant was convicted. The head of the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office reportedly coached suspects on how to avoid corruption charges.[143]
A November 2018 EU Commission report praised some of Ukraine's reforms during Poroshenko's presidency, such as in healthcare, pensions and public administration.[144] But judicial reforms were too slow, the report said, and "there have been only few convictions in high-level corruption cases so far".[144] It also stated that too often attacks on civil society activists went unpunished.[144]
During Poroshenko's 2019 campaign for reelection, a major scandal arose in which business partners of Poroshenko (but not Poroshenko himself) were accused of smuggling Russian components to Ukrainian defense factories at wildly inflated prices.[145][144]
Critics of Poroshenko stated he removed the jurisdiction of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine over records about off-the books payments to Paul J. Manafort, who lobbied on behalf of former Ukraine president Viktor Yanukovych, and served as campaign manager for Donald Trump during his first presidential campaign.[146] Moreover, Poroshenko stripped of Ukrainian citizenship Mikheil Saakashvili who criticized him for not fighting Ukrainian corruption.[147]
On 11 April 2019, the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine was established and Poroshenko signed the decree appointing the judges during an official ceremony.[148]
Foreign policy
United States
On 7 December 2015, Poroshenko met with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden in Kyiv to discuss Ukrainian-American cooperation.[149] He met U.S. President Donald Trump in June 2017; BBC News falsely accused him of paying Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen between 400,000 and 600,000 dollars to organize this meeting.[150][151] The BBC ended up having to state the allegation was untrue, apologizing to Poroshenko, deleting the article from its website, paying legal costs, and paying damages to Poroshenko.[152][153]
Russia
In June 2014, Poroshenko forbade any cooperation with Russia in the military sphere.[154]
At the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 26 June 2014 Poroshenko stated that bilateral relations with Russia cannot be normalized unless Russia undoes its unilateral annexation of Crimea and returns its control of Crimea to Ukraine.[155]
On Poroshenko's June 2014 Peace plan for Eastern Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov commented "it looks like an ultimatum".[101]
On 26 August 2014, Poroshenko met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Minsk where Putin called on Ukraine not to escalate its offensive. Poroshenko responded by demanding Russia halt its supplying of arms to separatist fighters. He said his country wanted a political compromise and promised the interests of Russian-speaking people in eastern Ukraine would be considered.[156]
European Union
The European Union (EU) and Ukraine signed the economic part of the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement on 27 June 2014.[157] Poroshenko stated that the day was "Ukraine's most historic day since independence in 1991", describing it as a "symbol of faith and unbreakable will".[157] He saw the signing as the start of preparations for Ukrainian EU Membership.[157]
NATO
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At his speech at the opening session of the new parliament on 27 November 2014, Poroshenko stated "we've decided to return to the course of NATO integration" because "the nonalignment status of Ukraine proclaimed in 2010 couldn't guarantee our security and territorial integrity".[158] The Ukrainian parliament on 23 December 2014 voted 303 to 8 to repeal a 2010 bill that had made Ukraine a non-aligned state in a bill submitted by Poroshenko.[159] On 29 December 2014, Poroshenko vowed to hold a referendum on joining NATO.[160] On 22 September 2015, Poroshenko claimed that "Russia's aggressive actions" proved need for the enlargement of NATO and that the Ukrainian referendum on joining NATO would be held after "every condition for the Ukrainian compliance with NATO membership criteria" was met by "reforming our country".[161]
On 2 February 2017, in an interview with Funke Mediengruppe, Poroshenko announced he was planning a referendum on whether Ukraine should join NATO.[162]
International
Poroshenko was criticized by Committee to Protect Journalists for signing a decree which banned 41 international journalists and bloggers from entering Ukraine for one year, being labeled as threats to national security.[163] The list includes three journalists from the BBC, and two Spanish journalists currently missing in Syria, all of whom previously covered the Ukraine crisis.[164]
In October 2015, Poroshenko visited the Kazakh capital of Astana, during which he told President Nursultan Nazarbayev that his country was Ukraine's "window to Asia" and vice versa.[165] During a visit to Gomel, Belarus in October 2018, he spoke to the Ukrainian community on the situation in Ukraine, saying that he does "not want Russia to use Belarus to get to our flank".[166]
Post-presidency
In the July 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, Poroshenko was first on the party list of European Solidarity.[167]
Police raid at Poroshenko's headquarters and gym
On 20 December 2019, Ukrainian law enforcement raided both Poroshenko's party headquarters and gym on the orders of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Hidden cameras and recording devices were found inside the gym's smoke detectors and security alarms. According to the State Investigation Bureau, those were allegedly secretly recording and filming Poroshenko's gym clients, some of which are politicians and businessmen. Poroshenko and Ihor Kononenko, deputy head of Poroshenko's party, are both owners of said gym and could not be reached for comments. The raid was part of two ongoing criminal investigations which are focused on two concerns. First, the alleged theft of servers with classified information. Second, the alleged tax evasion and money laundering.[168]
Derkach fragments
In May 2020, Andrii Derkach, a Ukrainian lawmaker who is aligned with a pro-Russian faction and has links to Russian intelligence, released edited fragments of private phone calls from several years between then-U.S. Vice President Joe Biden (the then-presumptive Democratic nominee for U.S. president, elected president in 2020) and then-President Poroshenko. Derkach used the clips to make a series of accusations not supported by the tapes.[169] The taped conversations were consistent with official U.S. and European policy at the time and with public statements by Biden and Poroshenko.[169] Derkach had met with Rudolph W. Giuliani in December 2019.[169] Derkach's maneuver raised questions about foreign interference in the 2020 U.S. elections, and echoed Russian government's interference into the 2016 election.[169] Biden's campaign and Poroshenko's political party European Solidarity described Derkach's act (which was publicized by the Russian state-controlled network RT) as a Russian attempt to harm Biden and disparage Ukraine.[169] In September 2020, the US Treasury Department sanctioned Derkach "for attempting to influence the U.S. electoral process," alleging he "has been an active Russian agent for over a decade, maintaining close connections with the Russian Intelligence Services."[170][171]
Anti-oligarch law
Two days after the passing of the anti-oligarch law, which seeks to curb the influence of Ukraine's wealthiest individuals, Poroshenko sold the TV channels Priamyi and 5 Kanal.[172]
Criminal case
On 20 December 2021, Poroshenko was accused of state treason, aiding terrorist organizations and financing terrorism due to allegedly organizing the purchase of coal from separatist-controlled areas of Ukraine together with pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk.[173] If convicted, he faces up to 15 years behind bars.[174] Poroshenko denied the allegations, calling them "fabricated, politically motivated, and black PR directed against [Zelensky's] political opponents".[173] On 6 January 2022, a Ukrainian court seized Poroshenko’s property.[175] On 15 January 2022, Poroshenko announced via a video message on Facebook: "I am returning to Ukraine on a flight from Warsaw at 09:10 a.m. on January 17… to defend Ukraine from Russian aggression", despite the case against him.[176][177] Following his return to Ukraine, the prosecutor's office asked a court to either remand Poroshenko in pre-trial detention for two months, or oblige him to pay bail of 1 billion hryvnia (37 million dollars), wear an electronic bracelet, remain in Kyiv, and hand over his passport.[174][178][179] Ultimately, the court chose a third option ('personal commitment'), which is less strict than house arrest and doesn't involve paying bail.[180][181] According to this commitment, Poroshenko has to submit his passport to the authorities, not leave Kyiv or the Kyiv Oblast without first receiving permission from the court or the prosecutors office, and inform the authorities if his place of employment or residence change.[182]
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 25 February 2022, amid the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Poroshenko appeared on TV with a Kalashnikov rifle together with the civil defense forces on the streets of Kyiv. He also stated that he believed that "Putin will never conquer Ukraine, no matter how many soldiers he has, how many missiles he has, how many nuclear weapons he has... We Ukrainians are a free people, with a great European future. This is definitely so."[183][184]
Panama Papers
Poroshenko set up an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands during the peak of the war in Donbas.[185] Leaked documents from the Panama Papers show Poroshenko registered the company, Prime Asset Partners Ltd, on 21 August 2014. Records in Cyprus show him as the firm's only shareholder.[186] He said that he had done nothing wrong, and the legal firm, Avellum, overseeing the sale of Roshen, Poroshenko's confectionery company, said that "any allegations of tax evasion are groundless". The anti-corruption group Transparency International believes that the "creation of businesses while serving as president is a direct violation of the constitution".[187]
His name was cited in the list of politicians named in "Paradise Papers" allegations.[188]
Personal life
Poroshenko has been married to Maryna since 1984.[26] The couple have four children: Oleksii (born 1985), the twins Yevheniia and Oleksandra (born 2000) and Mykhailo (born 2001).[26] Oleksii was a representative in the regional parliament of Vinnytsia Oblast.[27] In November 2014, he became People's Deputy of Ukraine.[citation needed] Maryna Poroshenko is a cardiologist, who does not take part in public life, apart from her participation in the activities of the Petro Poroshenko Charity Foundation.[26] Poroshenko became a grandfather on the day of his presidential inauguration of 7 June 2014.[189]
Poroshenko is a member of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.[48][27] Poroshenko has financed the restoration of its buildings and monasteries.[48] In high-level meetings he is often seen with a crucifix.[48]
Poroshenko speaks fluent Ukrainian, Russian, English, and Romanian.[190]
Cultural and political image
Poroshenko has been nicknamed "Chocolate King" because of his ownership of Roshen, a large confectionery business.[46] Poroshenko objected to being called an oligarch, stating that "Oligarchs are people who seek power in order to further enrich themselves. But I have long fought against bandits who are robbing our country and have destroyed free enterprise".[27]
After promising during his election campaign to sell his business assets when elected as the president of Ukraine, according to Poroshenko and Rothschild Wealth Management & Trust, since becoming President of Ukraine, he has relinquished the management of his businesses, ultimately (in January 2016) to a blind trust.[23][33]
Potential implementation of martial law
During his speeches Poroshenko on numerous occasions called the war in East Ukraine a "Patriotic War",[192][193][194] yet did not initiate implementation of martial law, for which he was criticized on numerous occasions by politicians and the general public.[195][196] Poroshenko said it was necessary to realize the consequences of martial law for the country:
- It would restrict the supply of weaponry and items of dual assignment;
- The IMF does not provide funds to countries that are at war.[197]
A month later, the second statement was refuted by a head of the IMF Ukrainian branch Jerome Vacher, "As for the possible introduction of martial law, the IMF has no formal legal restrictions that impede continuation of mutual cooperation under such conditions. We have already worked with a number of countries where war conflicts of various intensity unfolded".[198]
On 5 February 2015, in his interview with the Spanish El Pais newspaper, Poroshenko stated that he would introduce martial law in the event of an escalation of the situation in Donbas, but that such a decision would limit democracy and civil liberties, as well as threaten the development of the economy.[199][200]
Martial law in Ukraine was introduced for 30 days in late November 2018, after the Kerch Strait incident.[201]
Connections with Dmytro Firtash
In April 2015, Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash at a court session about his extradition to the United States stated that at the Ukrainian presidential election he financially supported Poroshenko,[202] and Vitali Klitchko in the Kyiv city mayoral election.[202]
Mikheil Saakashvili
_03.jpg)
On 29 May 2015, Poroshenko invited former President of Georgia and his friend Mikheil Saakashvili to help with conducting reforms in Ukraine and granted him Ukrainian citizenship.[203] The very next day after receiving citizenship on 30 May 2015, Saakashvili was appointed by the president as head (governor) of the Odessa Regional State Administration (see Governor of Odessa Oblast).[204] However, on 26 July 2017 Poroshenko issued a decree[nb 2] stripping Saakashvili of his Ukrainian citizenship, without providing any reason. According to The Economist, most observers saw Poroshenko's stripping Saakashvili of his citizenship "simply as the sidelining of a political rival" (Saakashvili started a political party Movement of New Forces to participate in upcoming elections).[206][147]
New year vacationing in 2018
In January 2018, journalists from Radio Free Europe reported that during Poroshenko's New Year's vacation starting 1 January 2018 on the Maldives, there were ten people who spent $500,000 to rent separate islands and the most expensive hotel in the country.[207][208] On 30 March 2018, Poroshenko submitted his income declaration. Poroshenko declared that he spent between 1.3 and 1.4 million UAH on this vacation – half what journalists had reported (some details about the president's vacation were classified)Smith School of Business and Reticle Join Forces
Posted on March 14, 2017
Retired Canadian Special Operations Forces leaders challenge Queen’s MBA students in experiential learning exercise
Kingston, ON, March 14, 2017 – Smith School of Business at Queen’s University and Reticle Ventures Canada Incorporated (Reticle) have launched a new initiative aimed at developing high-performance team and resiliency skills for Queen’s MBA students.
Over the course of 40 hours, student teams were pushed to test their problem-solving, communication, and collaboration skills through a series of endurance exercises delivered by Reticle’s team of former Canadian Special Operations Forces leaders. Smith’s high performance coaching team provided on-site coaching and mentorship, and led students through individual and team reflections after each phase of the program. Throughout the Smith-Reticle Resiliency Challenge, Reticle collected physiological data to track student responses to various states of fatigue, stress, and rest.
“We wanted to give students a team-focused experience beyond the classroom, and this challenge provided a unique opportunity to amplify the skills taught in our MBA program,” says Matt Reesor, director, Queen’s MBA program. “Learning in an ambiguous environment helps prepare students for the uncertainty and unpredictability we see in business today.”
The Smith-Reticle Resiliency Challenge, introduced in February at Reticle’s Zero4-NORTH training and innovation facility in Brockville, Ont., draws on Smith’s strengths as an internationally recognized leader in team-based learning and applies Reticle’s unique knowledge of Special Operations Forces best practices.
“Whether in the boardroom or on the battlefield, successful leaders share common characteristics,” says Mike Coyle, Reticle’s vice-president. “This program provides an immersive and experiential learning opportunity for Canada’s future leaders at Smith.”
The Smith-Reticle Resiliency Challenge is part of a series of new initiatives that Smith is rolling out to enhance the team-based learning and coaching experience for students at Smith. In November 2016, Smith announced an eight-year partnership with the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC), which added the best practices of Olympic coaching to the school’s team-based learning approach. Teams 2.0 provides unparalleled training for Smith students to develop leadership, communication, resiliency and problem-solving skills, while enabling them to build and thrive in high performance teams in the business world.
About Reticle
Reticle is driven by a belief that our proven approach to 'wicked problem' resolution, cultivated and refined over decades of service and experience in Canada's first-tier Special Operations organization, can assist others in navigating today's highly ambiguous, networked, and complex global environment.
Whether an organization seeks to resolve a specific challenge, or discover and unlock sub-optimized organizational potential, Reticle's cross-functional teams of national and international experts stand ready to serve.
Led by the former Commander and Chief Information Officer of Joint Task Force Two — Canada’s Tier 1 Special Operations unit — Reticle offers specialized consulting services, training and innovation services, and tailored solutions that discreetly facilitate and enable its clients to smartly manage risk while operating in today’s global environment.
About Smith School of Business
Smith School of Business is one of the world’s premier business schools — renowned for exceptional programs, outstanding faculty and research, and the quality of its graduates. Canadian executives regard Smith as Canada’s most innovative business school, offering students academic excellence and a superior overall experience. Smith School of Business — where Canada’s first Commerce program was launched in 1919 — is located at Queen’s University in Kingston and in Toronto, Ontario. The School also delivers programs at locations across Canada, as well in the U.S., the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and China.
-30-
For further information:
Reticle
Steve Day
613-371-3812 / steved@reticle.ca
www.reticle.ca
Smith School of Business
Amber Wallace
613-533-3151 / awallace@queensu.ca
https://smith.queensu.ca/about/dean.php
Dr. Wanda Costen, Dean
Dr. Wanda Costen, Dean of Smith School of Business, joined the Queen’s University community in July 2021. Dr. Costen is known for being a champion of inclusiveness in business, and her collaborative approach to leadership brings a unique combination of experience in academic leadership, research and teaching, as well as senior management roles in the private and public sector.
Dr. Costen engages and collaborates with community and business leaders, and university faculty, staff, students, and alumni as part of her ongoing commitment to ensuring Smith School of Business research and teaching prepares its graduates to meet society’s changing expectations of business.
Dr. Costen earned a Ph.D. in sociology at Washington State University, an EMBA from Pepperdine University, and Bachelor of Science from the United States Military Academy, and has undertaken research in areas such as managing diversity, racial and gender inequality in organizations, women and leadership, and strategic human resources. Dr. Costen’s passionate belief that businesses can drive positive social impact has made her a catalyst for partnerships between academia, business and public organizations on diversity initiatives and training programs throughout her career.
Dr. Costen is on the boards of the Kingston Economic Development Corporation, as well as the Business Schools Association of Canada (BSAC).
Contact the Office of the Dean:
https://twitter.com/SteveDay_9er/with_replies
Queen’s Gazette
Queen’s experts weigh in on the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Principal Patrick Deane has shared a message of solidarity with universities in Ukraine on behalf of Queen's. In his message to the Queen’s community, he highlights the important role institutes of higher learning must play in supporting democracy in all parts of the world.
Principal's Statement on Ukraine
Mar 01, 2022
Dear Queen’s Community,
Last week, the world watched in horror as Russia invaded Ukraine. Our institution, like many others, felt the effects immediately. Messages with lists of supports for those in distress were sent out by myself and others in the university. We continue to offer those supports, but as the crisis deepens it has become necessary also to declare publicly how profoundly repugnant the Russian invasion of Ukraine is to the values upon which institutions like our own are built.
Professor Ronald Daniels, President of Johns Hopkins University, succinctly made a key point in his recent book, What Universities Owe Democracy: “Autocratic regimes extinguish the expressive freedom and organic flourishing of students and scholars. For those who love and believe in the university, we cannot be agnostic about, or indifferent to, the vibrancy of liberal democracy.” Conversely, we must condemn any and all actions that threaten democracy, for the simple reason that they undermine what every student, faculty or staff member at this university has to believe: namely, that the pursuit of knowledge and truth has an inherent and persisting value for humanity and that the health of our society depends upon it. Thus, while we feel deep concern about the safety and welfare of the Ukrainian people at large, we must stand in special solidarity with the more than eight hundred institutions of higher learning in Ukraine whose values, aspirations, and very purpose for being has been put under threat by the invasion.
Patrick Deane
Principal and Vice-Chancellor
| Office of the Principal Queen's University 74 University Avenue 351 Richardson Hall Kingston, ON, K7L 3N6 Canada | |
| Telephone: | 613-533-2200 (reception) 613-533-2201 (contact for Diane Reid, scheduler for Principal Deane) 613-533-6838 (fax) |
| Office hours: | Due to COVID-19, office staff members are working remotely. The office is currently open by appointment only - please email the person you wish to meet to book a time. |
| Email: | principal@queensu.ca |
About the Principal
Patrick Deane became the 21st Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Queen's University on July 1, 2019.
Dr. Deane is the former President and Vice-Chancellor of McMaster University, a position he held for nine years. Prior to that he served as Vice-Principal (Academic) at Queen's and also held a number of academic administrative appointments at Western University and the University of Winnipeg.
Dr. Deane is a Professor of English Literature, with his principal research focus being the relationship between cultural production and British politics in the first half of the Twentieth Century.
He read English and Law at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, before undertaking graduate studies and receiving both an M.A. and a Ph.D. in English Literature from Western University.
Dr. Deane was the first recipient of the John Charles Polanyi Prize for Literature in 1988, and was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.
He is President of the Governing Council of the Magna Charta Observatory, a member of the Board of Directors of Providence Care and a member of the Campaign Cabinet for the United Way of Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington.
As the world watches the rapidly evolving situation, researchers help us understand the roots of the conflict and the different factors at play.
Over the past month, a range of Queen’s research experts have been focused on the escalating crisis between Russia and Ukraine, which has now become a full-scale military conflict. Featured in local, national, and international media, their voices have helped us in understanding the history between the two countries, how this war will be fought and financed, as well as the role sanctions against Russia may play in bringing it to an end.
Here’s a selection of Queen’s experts in major media outlets that are contributing to the fast-moving discussions taking place around the world.
Why Russia is invading Ukraine
Stéfanie von Hlatky (Political Studies)
It has been a few generations since a war of this scale has broken out in Europe. To help support parents and teachers in having important conversations with children about the crisis, Stéfanie von Hlatky collaborated with CBC to create a special online resource for CBC Kids News. In it, Dr. von Hlatky, who is an expert in military alliances and cooperation, breaks down the three main reasons why Russia has invaded Ukraine.
“One reason that Russia is invading Ukraine is because as Russia has struggled since the Soviet Union collapsed, NATO has continued to grow, and Putin sees that as a threat.”
Dr. von Hlatky said Russia sees Ukraine as being historically and culturally part of Russia.
“Putin, who is nearing the end of his political career, may be trying to distract from all the problems happening in Russia, such as the toll the COVID-19 pandemic is taking on the economy.”
CBC Kids News: https://www.cbc.ca/kidsnews/post/russia-declared-war-on-ukraine.-heres-why
Misinformation
Christian Leuprecht (Policy Studies)
The war may be on the other side of the Atlantic, but in our interconnected world, Russia's efforts to spread misinformation will easily find their way to Canadian viewers. Christian Leuprecht, an expert on security and defence and political demography, talks to CBC News about how Canadians need to be wary of falling for fake reports as Russian disinformation campaigns are expected.
“The average Canadian should be concerned about disinformation, misinformation and information laundering, all of which the Russians are actively propagating,” he says. “Many people continue to work from home, so that makes them inadvertent conduits for bad actors to try to infiltrate corporations… So every Canadian in a way has a role to play here. ”
CBC News: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cyber-russia-cse-1.6362878
Oil and gas
Thomas Hughes (Political Studies)
The war in Ukraine is having an impact on consumers here in Canada and around the world. Thomas Hughes, a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Queen’s University who has researched the political effects of military exercises in Europe, talks to Global News about how Canadians will likely see an increase in the price of oil and gas. Russia is one of the world’s leading exporters of oil on the international market.
“Of primary concern for Ontario is Russian oil export,” he says. “The reality is, we are going to see a deficit in oil and gas. It is going to be a challenge for Russia. The extent of that, to be confirmed.”
Global News: https://globalnews.ca/video/8647643/russian-ukrainian-wars-local-economic-impact/
David Detomasi (Smith School of Business)
Countries around the world have a strong reliance on Russian oil and gas, and many are wondering whether U.S. production can instead help meet the demand. David Detomasi, an expert in the geopolitics of oil, explains to the Spokesman-Review why calls for the U.S. to boost oil and gas production and impose sanctions on Russian fossil fuel exports face challenges. Dr. Detomasi says the idea that the U.S. could transport enough gas to Europe, which would be limited to transportation on ships, to substantially relieve its dependency on Russia is not plausible at this time.
Dr. Detomasi says the Ukraine crisis should be a wake-up call for the United States and its allies that a tight energy market gives countries like Russia leverage they can exert to get their way, perhaps even in war.
“It is a stark reminder of how dependent the world remains on oil and natural gas… The more we have robust, ethically produced oil and natural gas in the world, the less folks like Putin and others can play this geopolitical card.”
The Spokesman-Review: https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2022/feb/27/northwest-republicans-call-on-biden-to-boost-us-oi/
Cryptocurrency and crowdfunding
Erica Pimentel (Smith School of Business)
Earlier in February, there were reports of Ukrainian NGOs and volunteer groups embracing cryptocurrencies to help fund the defence of their country in anticipation of a war. Erica Pimentel, who has researched the challenges in auditing blockchain based assets, explains to Today U.K. News how cryptocurrency provides an alternative to traditional fundraising platforms.
“Social movements will eventually raise money through blockchain-based crowdfunding platforms,” she says. “I think that, going forward, using decentralized forms of financing that are difficult for governments to interfere with will become the norm.”
Today UK News: https://todayuknews.com/crypto-currency/bitcoin-at-the-barricades-ottawa-ukraine-and-beyond/
Canada’s sanctions on Russia
Christian Leuprecht (Policy Studies)
Canada has imposed some sanctions on Russia, but many believe there is more to be done. Christian Leuprecht wrote an op-ed for the National Post that examines how Canada is enabling Russia by opposing pipelines and protecting money launderers. Dr. Leuprecht writes that the federal government’s sanctions against Russia are largely performative because Canada’s relations with Russia are already so limited.
“If Canada’s federal government were to adopt Australian-style foreign interference legislation and U.K.-style Unexplained Wealth Orders, it could actually start to go after dirty Russian money that has long sloshed around in Toronto’s real estate markets.”
“Canada has ample supply of natural gas to liquify and export. Yet, Canada lags way behind in that game because it naively has no sense for geopolitics. Make no mistake: Canadians who oppose construction of the Coastal Gaslink pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia, and pipeline capacity to enable liquified natural gas exports from Canada’s East Coast to Europe, are aiding, abetting, and condoning Putin’s behaviour.”
National Post: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/christian-leuprecht-canada-enables-russia-by-opposing-pipelines-and-protecting-money-launderers
Queen’s University encourages its research experts to add to the global conversation as the situation continues to rapidly evolve. If you are interested in contributing to the conversation, please contact media relations officer Victoria Klassen (victoria.klassen@queensu.ca or 343-363-1794).
https://smith.queensu.ca/faculty_and_research/faculty_list/pimentel-erica.php
Erica Pimentel
Assistant ProfessorOverview
Erica is an Assistant Professor in the Smith School of Business at Queen's University. She is in the Accounting Area where her teaching focuses on Financial Accounting.
https://todayuknews.com/crypto-currency/bitcoin-at-the-barricades-ottawa-ukraine-and-beyond/
Bitcoin at the barricades: Ottawa, Ukraine and beyond
Russian troops gather on Ukraine’s borders. Ukrainian NGOs and volunteer groups embrace cryptocurrencies to help defend their country in the event of a coming war, according to a Feb. 8 investigation by Elliptic, a blockchain analytics firm.
Recent reports like these raise the question: Are Bitcoin and other cryptos becoming the preferred fundraising platform for political protesters and social movements — given that cryptocurrencies don’t respect national boundaries and are relatively censorship-resistant? And, if so, should one be concerned?
Some find it problematic, after all, that the same fundraising platform that enables a freedom fighter can also provide funds to a racist or terrorist group. Also, most Canadian citizens were not supporting the truckers’ blockade of downtown Ottawa, according to the New York Times. If true, is Bitcoin being used as a tool to undermine democratic processes?
“Cryptocurrency has proved to be a robust and growing alternative (to traditional currency) — especially when it comes to donations from other countries,” said Elliptic. Bitcoin donations to Ukrainian volunteer groups to buy military equipment, training services and medical supplies for a possible war surpassed $500,000 in 2021, a tenfold increase from the previous year, it noted.
“One of the benefits of Bitcoin is its censorship resistance,” Bitcoin payment processor OpenNode wrote last year. “Without any central authority to dictate who can and can’t use Bitcoin, it has proven to be the currency of choice for many individuals and organizations who have been left out of traditional payment methods.”
Pandora’s box has been opened
This trend is only likely to continue, some believe. “Social movements will. eventually raise money through blockchain-based crowdfunding platforms,” Erica Pimentel, assistant professor at the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University in Canada, told Cointelegraph. There is little incentive to use centralized fundraising platforms like GoFundMe — the Canadian truckers’ original platform before it pulled the plug on them — when campaigns on these platforms can be so easily shut down. “There is no way to put the lid back on Pandora’s box,” she said.
To be sure, Bitcoin has been a fund-raising tool for some time now. Jailed Russian dissident Alexei Navalny’s political movement has been receiving BTC donations since 2016, though inflows picked up significantly in 2021. As of February 16, 2022, the movement has received a total of 667 BTC, worth more than $29 million at the time of writing, according to the Bitcoin address that the group is promoting.
In Belarus — a former Soviet republic like Ukraine — the Belarus Solidarity Foundation (BYSOL) has been taking crypto donations to support political victims of that nation’s security forces following street protests in the wake of the disputed 2020 presidential elections. The foundation pays demonstrators’ fines, among other things, and has been using cryptocurrencies from the beginning because “it is very difficult for the Belarusian authorities to stop these flows,” said Andrei Strizhak, head of BYSOL.
Bypassing financial institutions is often a big reason cited for embracing blockchain-based fundraising. “In some cases, we found that financial institutions had closed accounts belonging to these fundraising campaigns,” said Elliptic, adding:
“This cannot happen with a crypto wallet. Cryptocurrency is also particularly suited to cross-border donations, allowing easier access to wealthy overseas donors.”
Extremist groups have also used Bitcoin to raise money. Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi group, for example, received 15 BTC from an anonymous donor in August 2017, its largest donation ever, only a week after participating in a white supremacist rally in Charlotteville, Virginia that turned deadly. Bitcoin became the group’s main source of funding after Daily Stormer was banned by Paypal and cut off from credit card firms, according to a PBS Frontline report, which spoke with Beth Littrell, a lawyer for the Southern Poverty Law Center. Littrell observed:
“It’s grown harder to use the legal system to stamp out hate groups, because now they operate with online networks and virtual money. ‘We were able to sue the Ku Klux Klan, a terrorist organization, in essence out of existence’.[…] Doing the same today is much harder, she said. ‘The law is evolving but lagging behind the harm.’”
Alternative pressure points
“Of course, we can all agree that we want the government to get in the way of Neo-Nazi movements,” Pimentel told Cointelegraph. “However, there are other ways to get in the way of these types of movements even if they are raising money online through crypto-based platforms.”
The Daily Stormer was eventually kicked off the web by its web hosting company GoDaddy and later removed from Google’s search engine, noted Pimentel, adding that TallyCoin, the Bitcoin crowdsourcing funding service used by the Ottawa truckers now, is also hosted by GoDaddy. “Therefore, there is the possibility to put pressure on web hosting firms or search engines to effectively cut off access to crypto-based fundraising platforms,” she said.
Asked whether decentralized fund-raising was generally a good thing or a bad thing, Pimentel answered that it really hinges on “whether we agree with the ideology of the social movement in question.” Many might agree in supporting a group or foundation promoting democracy in the face of an authoritarian government. “I think we can all agree that these folks should have access to funds in a way that is tamper-proof and cannot be shut down.”
But, in the event that an organization uses Bitcoin to sow discrimination and hate, “We would hope that the government would intervene,” she told Cointelegraph, adding:
“I do worry that blockchain-based crowdfunding will be co-opted by nefarious groups and it will become increasingly difficult to stop them.”
Others argue that BTC and other cryptocurrencies are simply tools — whether they are used for good or ill is really up to the people using them. The same can be said about anonymity, Marta Belcher, a cryptocurrency and civil liberties attorney, told Cointelegraph, further explaining:
“The fact that a technology could be used anonymously does not mean that there is something wrong with that technology. Nor should we call for a ban on a particular technology merely because it could be used in ways we don’t like.”
“We don’t blame Ford when one of their cars is used as a getaway vehicle in a bank robbery,” Belcher added.
More regulation
Governments may, nonetheless, insist on some modicum of oversight or regulation. Just recently, the Canadian government announced an expansion of its Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing law to include crowdfunding platforms and payment service providers, continued Pimentel, and “the deputy prime minister specified that crypto transactions would be included in this measure.”
Under the act, crowdfunding platforms and payment services providers linked to them including crypto-based ones must register with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada. “This means that these platforms will have to report crypto transactions worth over $10,000 Canadian dollars or crypto transactions labeled as suspicious,” Pimentel said.
The act applies to Canadian businesses and international businesses doing business in Canada. This raises the question whether it will simply discourage firms from doing business in Canada.
After all, it can be expensive to put in all the processes needed to comply with the law. Pimentel worries that it might have the unintended consequence of imposing significant compliance expenses on Canadian firms, while “pushing folks who want to skirt the reporting requirements to simply use firms abroad.”
Tonight in #Ottawa, the Freedom Convoy protest continues for the 19th day #FreedomConvoy pic.twitter.com/RFl0epGPvi
— Lisa Bennatan (@LisaBennatan) February 16, 2022
Any turning back?
Overall, given that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are borderless and relatively censorship-resistant, is there any turning back the clock on this trend? Will most social movements eventually raise funds globally and through blockchain-based crowdfunding platforms? Pimentel said:
“I think that, going forward, using decentralized forms of financing that are difficult for governments to interfere with will become the norm.”
And
this process is likely to continue to incite controversy because it is
always difficult to separate the means, for example Bitcoin (BTC),
from the ends, such as vaccination mandates. Also, arguments about the
rightness of a given cause are unlikely to be resolved, if history is
any guide. One person’s hostage-taker can still be another person’s
freedom fighter.
https://smith.queensu.ca/faculty_and_research/faculty_list/detomasi-david.php
David Detomasi
Adjunct Associate Professor & Distinguished Faculty Fellow of International BusinessOverview
Dr. Detomasi is an associate professor of international business at the Smith School of Business, and is a Distinguished Faculty Fellow In International Business. He completed his PhD from the Department of Political Studies at Queen's University in 1999, specializing in international political economy. He also holds a Master of Arts in War Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada, a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from Queen's University, and is a graduate of the Executive Program on the Global Financial System from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2022/feb/27/northwest-republicans-call-on-biden-to-boost-us-oi/
Northwest Republicans call on Biden to boost U.S. oil and gas production, sanction Russian exports amid Ukraine crisis
Sun., Feb. 27, 2022
WASHINGTON – As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine roils global energy markets, Northwest Republicans are calling on President Joe Biden to boost U.S. oil and gas production and impose sanctions on Russian fossil fuel exports in an effort to weaken the Kremlin’s leverage over Europe.
In response to the invasion, the United States and its allies have levied sanctions on Russian banks, state-owned businesses and even President Vladimir Putin himself. But the White House has resisted targeting Russia’s oil and gas industry – which accounted for more than a third of the country’s budget in 2021 – over fears of further disrupting markets already unsettled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Russia depends on those revenues just as much as the world needs its energy,” Daleep Singh, Biden’s deputy national security adviser, said Thursday at the White House. “But we’re not going to do anything which causes an unintended disruption to the flow of energy, as the global economic recovery is still underway.”
After oil producers scaled back their operations when demand plummeted in the early months of the pandemic, global supply has struggled to keep up with rising demand, driving prices higher. Fears over the Ukraine crisis made things worse as crude oil prices topped $100 a barrel Thursday for the first time since 2014, up nearly 50% from a year earlier.
Natural gas prices also jumped in response to the invasion. The European Union imports 41% of its natural gas supply from Russia, according to the latest EU data. The Washington Post reported Wednesday the EU plans to unveil a strategy to end its reliance on Russian energy, but such a transition would take years .
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Spokane, the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, released a statement Thursday calling on Biden “to restore America’s energy dominance,” which she called “our most powerful weapon against Putin.”
“Our allies must not be beholden to aggressors like Putin who use vital resources as a weapon against the West,” she said. “Now is the time for President Biden to flip the switch, say yes to American energy, and aggressively promote America’s energy jobs, production, and exports.”
The United States is the world’s leading producer of both oil and natural gas, according to the latest data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, but the Biden administration has taken steps critics say hamper oil and gas production, even as environmentalists say they don’t go far enough to combat climate change.
During his first week in office, Biden blocked the controversial Keystone XL pipeline that would have carried Canadian oil to the United States and paused oil and gas leasing on federal lands in the West. His administration has since approved permits for drilling on public lands but delayed those projects again Feb. 19 amid a legal fight with GOP-controlled states.
Rep. Russ Fulcher, a Republican who represents North Idaho, said Thursday he and other Republicans planned to talk with White House officials and urge them to ramp up U.S. fossil fuel production to help European allies reduce their dependence on Russia and take away revenue from Moscow.
“We strongly believe that we have the capacity to eventually fiscally choke Russia,” he said. “If we do it right and we’re smart, we get a double win: We reduce Russia’s ability to finance wars and expansionist policy and we increase our own energy independence and exports.”
David Detomasi, an associate professor at Queen’s University in Ontario and author of a forthcoming book on the geopolitics of oil, said while the United States has the capacity to dramatically boost its natural gas production, “the idea that you can transport enough of that gas to Europe to substantially relieve its dependency on Russia is not plausible at this time.”
While Russia delivers natural gas to EU countries through pipelines, some of which run through Ukraine, Detomasi said delivering liquified natural gas from North America to Europe is limited by relying on ships. On the other hand, he said, U.S. natural gas production can more easily be ramped up or down based on demand.
Randolph Bell, senior director of the Global Energy Center at the Atlantic Council, a D.C. think tank, said the biggest factor holding back U.S. oil and gas production is the market, not the Biden administration. While the federal government could lower taxes or make permitting easier for oil and gas operations, he said, production will only increase when private companies decide it’s worth doing.
“It’s a bit of a political game to say that the Biden administration should make an effort to increase production when there’s actually not much they can do,” Bell said, “and there’s nothing they’re actively doing to prohibit production.”
Despite Biden delaying new drilling on federal land, U.S. oil production rose in 2021, spurred by higher prices. In a Feb. 16 report, the Energy Information Administration projected it will reach a record high in 2023. After decades of importing oil to meet domestic demand, the United States has produced enough oil to be a net exporter since 2018, including in the first half of 2021.
Ellen Wald, president of Transversal Consulting, a global energy consulting firm, wrote in an email there is “no question” Biden’s decision to cancel the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline “hurt American and Canadian energy security,” though she noted the pipeline wouldn’t have been operational in time to affect the current crisis in Ukraine.
“Biden’s energy agenda is a partial cause for high oil prices and sluggish U.S. oil production today,” she wrote, citing the uncertainty caused by the legal fight over drilling leases on federal land. “It is not the only reason, but it plays a role in stifling American oil companies’ exuberance and willingness to invest money in new oil and gas exploration and production.”
Another factor, Wald said, is that because scaling up production costs money and drives oil and gas prices down, companies may prefer to stick with their current production levels and higher profit margins.
In addition to ramping up domestic production, Republicans argue the White House should target Russia’s oil and gas industry as part of a harsher set of sanctions than Biden has announced so far.
“The United States needs to aggressively sanction Russia’s oil and gas activities,” said Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, who was a key architect of a 2017 bill that imposed sanctions on Russia, partly for its forcible annexation of Ukrainian territory in 2014.
Crapo led a delegation of lawmakers to Ukraine in 2019, including Fulcher, to consider sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that would carry natural gas from Russia to Germany. The German government halted that project in response to the invasion, and Biden announced sanctions targeting the company behind it Wednesday.
His fellow Idaho Republican, Sen. Jim Risch, is spearheading new legislation to punish Russia for the invasion, although Risch’s bill does not include sanctions on Russian oil exports.
Bell said the Biden administration is in a tough position as it tries to punish Russia without side effects that hurt Americans, who already are facing higher costs amid the fastest inflation the nation has seen in nearly 40 years. To make restricting Russian oil exports viable, he said, global oil production would need to increase enough to drive prices down.
Wald said sanctioning Russian fossil fuel exports “would cause an immediate spike in oil and gas prices which would cause economic hardship and potentially a recession.” The market would eventually settle down with Russia selling more oil and gas to China and China’s current suppliers in turn selling their products to Europe, but she said “this kind of reorganization doesn’t occur overnight.”
In the longer term, transitioning to alternative energy sources could make Europe less vulnerable to Russia’s energy influence. But Robert Johnston, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, said gas will remain an important resource.
“The EU is using a lot more renewable power generation which displaces some gas but because of the variable nature of wind and solar, gas remains an important back up source of power,” Johnston wrote in an email.
“Gas is harder to replace in home heating or industrial use so EU governments will likely subsidize prices. As for oil, in the long term, electric vehicles and hydrogen for heavy trucks will displace oil but that is likely to happen only very gradually and will not alleviate the current crisis.”
Detomasi said the Ukraine crisis should be a wake-up call for the United States and its allies that a tight energy market gives countries like Russia leverage they can exert to get their way, perhaps even in war.
“It is a stark reminder of how dependent the world remains on oil and natural gas,” Detomasi said. “The more we have robust, ethically produced oil and natural gas in the world, the less folks like Putin and others can play this geopolitical card.”
Christian Leuprecht
Professor
PhD (Queen's); MA (Toronto), D.É.A. (Grenoble); BA Hons. (Toronto)
School of Policy Studies
Robert Sutherland Hall, Room 309
Phone: (613) 533-6633
Fax: (613) 533-6868
christian.leuprecht@queensu.ca
www.christianleuprecht.com/
Brief Biography
Christian Leuprecht (Ph.D, Queen’s) is Class of 1965 Professor in Leadership, Department of Political Science, Royal Military College, on leave as Matthew Flinders Fellow at Flinders University in South Australia. He is a recipient of RMC’s Cowan Prize for Excellence in Research an elected member of the College of New Scholars of the Royal Society of Canada. He is president of the International Sociological Association’s Research Committee 01: Armed Forces and Conflict Resolution, Munk Senior Fellow at the Macdonald Laurier Institute and cross-appointed to the Department of Political Studies and the School of Policy Studies at Queen’s University where he is also a fellow of the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations and the Queen’s Centre for International and Defence Policy. An expert on security and defence, political demography, and comparative federalism and multilevel governance, he is regularly called as an expert witness to testify before committees of Parliament.
His publications have appeared in English, German, French, and Spanish and include nine books and scores of articles that have appeared in Government Information Quarterly (2016), Armed Forces and Society (2015), Global Crime (2015, 2013), the Canadian Foreign Policy Journal (2014, Maureen Molot Prize for Best Article), Canadian Public Administration (2014), the Canadian Journal of Political Science (2018, 2012, 2003), Regional and Federal Studies (2012), and Terrorism and Political Violence (2018, 2016, 2011). His editorials appear regularly across Canada’s national newspapers and he is a frequent commentator in domestic and international media.
Leuprecht has been a visiting professor at the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg Institute for Advanced Study (2016), the Helmut-Schmidt-University of the Bundeswehr (2016), Université Pierre-Mendès France (2015), the University of Augsburg in Germany (2011), the Swedish National Defence College (recurring) and the European Academy (recurring), the Bicentennial Visiting Associate Professor in Canadian Studies at Yale University (2009-2010). He is a research affiliate at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (since 2005), the Network for Terrorism, Security, and Society (since 2012), l’Université de Montréal’s International Centre for Comparative Criminology (since 2014), the Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur les relations internationales du Canada et du Québec (since 2015), l’Observatoire sur la radicalization et l’extrémisme violent (since 2015), the Austrian Institute for European and Security Policy (since 2010), the Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict at the University of Pennsylvania and Bryn Mawr College (2003), the World Population Program at the International Institute for Advanced Systems Analysis in Vienna, Austria (2002), and held doctoral (2001-2003) and postdoctoral (2003-2005) fellowships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. He holds a Ph.D. from Queen’s University (2003), and graduate degrees in Political Science (1998) and French (1999) from the University of Toronto as well as the Institut d’Études Politiques at the Université Pierre-Mendès France in Grenoble (1997).
From 2015-2018 he held a Governor-in-Council appointment to the governing Council of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada where he also served on the Executive Committee and as Chair of the Committee on Discovery Research. Since joining RMCC in 2005, he has served as Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Deputy Head of the Department of Political Science and Economics. He is the recipient of the RMCC Commandant’s Commendation for Excellence in Service. A long-time proponent of experiential learning, Leuprecht has also been a finalist for RMCC’s Teaching Excellence Award and has received honourable mention for the Queen’s University Undergraduate Research Mentorship Award (2017). He is a member of the editorial boards of Armed Forces & Society, Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, Current Sociology’s Manuscript Series, and the Springer book series in Advances in Science and Technologies for Security Applications. Previously, he was associate editor of the Queen’s Policy Studies series published by McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Canadian intelligence agency calls for ramped-up cyber defences after Russia invades Ukraine
CSE says it has been tracking cyber threat activity
In a statement Thursday, the Communications Security Establishment said that "in light of Russia's ongoing, unjustified military offensive in Ukraine," it "strongly encourages all Canadian organizations to take immediate action and bolster their online cyber defences."
Dan Rogers, the associate chief at CSE, said the agency is watching for cyber threat activity directed at critical infrastructure networks, including those in the financial and energy sectors.
"I don't know that I would say that we're expecting an increase but I would say, regardless of the context, we have seen and called out Russian cyber activity in the past as being reckless," Rogers told a media briefing Thursday afternoon.
"When we have a situation like we have now with Russia engaged in a conflict, we want to make sure that Canadian institutions have every mechanism possible to help defend themselves."
His agency said it has been sharing cyber threat intelligence with key partners in Ukraine and is working with the Canadian Armed Forces through intelligence sharing, cyber security and cyber operations.
CSE has both active powers — allowing it to disrupt foreign online threats to Canada's systems — and defensive powers allowing it to take action online to protect Canadian systems.
"I can't speak to the specifics of operations or planning," said Rogers. "I can say that CSE is ready. We do have cyber capabilities."
The agency said that while it's not aware of any specific threats to Canadian organizations related to events in and around Ukraine, it pointed to a historical pattern of cyber attacks on Ukraine and other countries.
In 2017, for example, CSE blamed Russian operatives for the NotPetya malware — which was primarily meant to target Ukraine but also attacked financial, energy, government and infrastructure sectors around the world.
Thursday's warning is the third from the agency this year. It issued a threat bulletin in January and another earlier this month directed at critical infrastructure operators.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a new suite of sanctions on Russian entities after President Vladimir Putin launched a series of unprovoked attacks on Ukraine.
Christian Leuprecht, a security expert at the Royal Military College and Queen's University, said Russian operatives will continue to try to find weak points.
The CSE statement is "clearly a signal that you need to make sure your people are working this weekend. You can't just automate this," he said.
"Russians have sort of this habit of going after critical infrastructure at times when nobody's looking. So you know ... on a Friday night."
'Mission critical' systems
Ken Barker, a professor of computer science at the University of Calgary, said the threat posed by Russia ought to compel Canadian authorities to take cyber defences more seriously.
"If we feel compelled to do it now, we should have felt compelled to do it two weeks ago," he said.
"Because ultimately, these systems are vulnerable and they're mission critical to the country, so we really do need to make sure that we make investments in securing and protecting them as we go forward."
Barker said one of those points of vulnerability is the linkage between operational and information technology systems.
"It's endemic throughout all of our critical infrastructures, whether that's energy, hydro, about anything that basically lights up the house or warms it," he said.
"If nobody can get access to that physically, it's safe in and of itself. The problem is what then happens is information technology is now linked to it to make it run more efficiently ... So now you have what's called the IT/OT vulnerability."
CSE said operators should be prepared to isolate critical infrastructure components and services from the internet and internal networks if those components "could be considered attractive for a hostile threat to disrupt."
It's calling on vulnerable organizations to be more vigilant by monitoring networks to quickly spot any unexpected or unusual network behaviour, and to have continuity plans for disruptions.
CSE is urging organizations to report any incidents.
It said it will keep Canadian organizations up to date on the threat through public alerts and protected channels.
Disinformation campaigns expected
While much of Thursday's warning concerns IT teams, Leuprecht said Canadians also need to be wary of falling for fake reports online.
"The average Canadian should be concerned about disinformation, misinformation and information laundering, all of which the Russians are actively propagating," he said.
A spokesperson for Canada's domestic spy agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, wouldn't comment on operational matters but said the agency is working with its allies, including the Five Eyes partnership — an intelligence sharing partnership with the U.S., U.K., Australia and New Zealand — to investigate any foreign interference threats, such as state-sponsored disinformation campaigns.
"Foreign interference has always been present in Canada, but its scale, speed, range, and impact have grown as a result of globalization and technology," said CSIS spokesperson Keira Lawson in an email to CBC News Thursday night.
"We are increasingly seeing social media being leveraged to spread disinformation or run influence campaigns designed to confuse or divide public opinion, interfere in healthy public debate and political discourse, and ultimately create social tensions."
Leuprecht also said the average person also needs to be on guard against malware and phishing attempts.
"Many people continue to work from home, so that makes them inadvertent conduits for bad actors to try to infiltrate, corporations," he said. "So every Canadian in a way has a role to play here."
Christian Leuprecht: Canada enables Russia by opposing pipelines and protecting money launderers
The federal government talks a good talk about deterring Russia, but it has little credibility in following through
My grandfather had a stern warning: Never trust the Russians. In that regard, Putin has long proven himself as reliable as he is predictable.
Having spent months painting himself into a corner, Putin left himself with no option but to run roughshod over the most basic principles of the post-Second World War international rules-based order: respect for territorial integrity and political sovereignty without recourse to violent inter-state coercion to redraw boundaries. The aim of these principles has been to avoid a repeat of the human, political, economic and military calamity of the new Thirty Years’ War, 1914-1945.
Evidently Putin believes that this order does not serve Russia’s interests: rather than revise it, he is now bent on destroying it altogether. Given the appeal of Western democratic freedom and prosperity over Putin’s autocracy, he can only prevail through brute force where might is right. European allies that naively spent years hedging on diplomacy with Russia are now literally standing in front of a heap of rubble. Were the Western model to mature in Ukraine, it would pose an existential threat to Putin and his regime insofar as it would offer an alternative to the mismanagement of the Russian state, economy and society by Putin and his kleptocratic coterie.
President Biden had already warned that direct contact between Russian and U.S. (and, by that logic, NATO) troops could spark a Third World War. The West’s only viable response, then, is political, economic and military containment.
In smug Canadian fashion, the federal government announced with great fanfare that it was following suit in levelling sanctions against parts of the Russian regime, its enablers and henchmen. The problem is that Canada’s relations with Russia are already so limited, this announcement is largely performative. But if the federal government wants to get serious about effective containment, there are options at its disposal.
A week ago, the federal government was quick to invoke emergency measures to stem problematic financial flows. While those measures applied to resources associated with the unlawful occupation in Ottawa, it was business as usual for organized criminals. If Canada’s federal government were to adopt Australian-style foreign interference legislation and UK-style Unexplained Wealth Orders, it could actually start to go after dirty Russian money that has long sloshed around in Toronto’s real estate markets. As the Cullen Commission of Inquiry into Money Laundering in British Columbia is showing, Canada’s financial and privacy laws are world class at protecting criminals and the ultra-rich at the expense of ordinary Canadians.
The federal government could also have an honest conversation with Canadians about gas pipelines. Putin’s war chest is plenished by Canada’s European allies that are procuring natural gas from Russia. Canada has ample supply of natural gas to liquify and export. Yet, Canada lags way behind in that game because it naively has no sense for geopolitics. Make no mistake: Canadians who oppose construction of the Coastal Gaslink pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia, and pipeline capacity to enable liquified natural gas exports from Canada’s East Coast to Europe, are aiding, abetting, and condoning Putin’s behaviour. Those same Canadians are happy to oppose pipelines to sell Canada’s own oil across the continent and the world because they would rather fill their gas tanks with petrol derived from human-rights abusing regimes in the Middle East. Canadians’ cognitive dissonance on pipelines runs counter to our country’s geostrategic interests. This inadvertent complicity of Putin’s thuggery is the case in point.
Canada has a collective-defence obligation to its NATO member allies to ensure Russia’s tanks do not keep rolling beyond Ukraine, now or in the future. The federal government talks a good talk about deterring Russia, but it has little credibility in following through. By way of example, (thus far) Canada has no fighter jet capable of defeating Russian air defences. Canada effectively supports and contributes to European missile defence yet is pretentious in refusing to join with the United States in ballistic missile defence of North America. Canada is effectively abrogating sovereign decision-making when it is unable to defend against a bad actor’s strategic nuclear or conventional assets.
The federal government did announce the deployment for more troops to shore up NATO’s northeastern flank and has put many more on standby to deploy. Canada’s longest and most-successful peacekeeping mission was the deployment of Canadian troops to Germany during the Cold War: to contain Soviet expansion. For over a century, Canada’s interests have manifest in a steadfast commitment to defend Europe from authoritarianism. Europe is Canada’s most important strategic relationship after the United States. The territorial integrity, political stability, economic prosperity, and social harmony of Europe are in Canada’s vital national interests. Canada and the world learned that the hard way during the first half of the twentieth century.
Domestic and international events of recent weeks are a reckoning for Canadian naiveté that has been long-time coming. We cannot trust the Russians; so, the premium we have to pay on our insurance policy has just gone up. Canada’s security, prosperity and democracy are at stake.
Christian Leuprecht is author of Intelligence as Democratic Statecraft. He is a professor at the Royal Military College and Queen’s University, and a senior fellow at the Macdonald Laurier Institute.
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