OTTAWA, January 21. /TASS/. The Russian government is not concerned about more sanctions from Canada over the situation on the border with Ukraine, Russian Ambassador to Ottawa Oleg Stepanov told Canada’s CTV.
"In our view, sanctions never work and will never work against a country such as Russia. The attempt to use sanctions as a threat in order to make Russia take certain steps on the international arena is just an illusion," he said, when asked what the Russian response would be for more sanctions from Canada.
According to the envoy, nobody in the Russian government "cares about Western sanctions anymore <…> because they do not work, they do not ‘bite,’ they do not inflict any real influence, there is no practical outcome."
Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly said during a visit to Brussels on Thursday that Ottawa could impose more sanctions on Moscow if Russian troops invaded Ukraine.
The West and Kiev have recently been spreading allegations about Russia’s potential ‘invasion’ of Ukraine. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov castigated these claims as "empty and unfounded", serving as a ploy to escalate tensions, pointing out that Russia did not pose any threat whatsoever to anyone. However, Peskov did not rule out the possibility of provocations aimed at justifying such allegations and warned that attempts to use military force to resolve the crisis in southeastern Ukraine would have serious consequences.