OTTAWA, December 15. /TASS/. The Western anti-Russian sanctions, not Russia's actions, are the true causes of economic problems in Canada and other countries around the world, the Russian Embassy in Ottawa said in a statement posted on Twitter on Wednesday.

"Canada's false claim: Russia is to blame for disruption of global supply chains, international trade, higher costs of food and energy. The facts [show that] the cause of the global economic downturn is the Western sanctions push towards isolating Russia from the global economy," the statement said. According to embassy, "sanctions never work. They only hurt their authors".

The message was published in response to a statement by the Canadian Foreign Ministry on Twitter, which claimed that Russia's actions in Ukraine were the cause of the global economic downturn.