OTTAWA, January 19. /TASS/. The Russian Ambassador to Ottawa Oleg Stepanov received no demarche at Global Affairs Canada following the remarks by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, despite the corresponding statement by Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly. The diplomat announced this talking to Russian reporters by phone on Wednesday.
"I saw this statement by Joly already post factum, that is, after the meeting, and was a little surprised, because the Canadian side had summoned me to the Foreign Ministry to make a demarche to me about the tragedy in Dnepropetrovsk (now Dnepr - TASS). It was exclusively about it, and you can imagine that it followed the predictable lines of general Western propaganda," he said.
The ambassador noted that, in turn, he brought to the attention of the Canadian side the position of the Russian Federation on this incident, but at the same time noted that the Russian side "has the deepest differences [with Canada] on the topic of Ukraine."
"In fact, we parted ways again, disagreeing on our assessments," Stepanov said.
When asked why the topic of recent statements by Lavrov was not raised at the meeting despite Joly’s announcement the Russian ambassador noted that Joly is a politician, not a career diplomat. Stepanov said that earlier on Wednesday, the head of the Canadian Foreign Ministry posted a statement on Twitter accusing Lavrov of anti-Semitism, to which the Russian embassy gave her an answer "on all points."
According to him, either Joly's subordinates did not receive appropriate instructions, or they came to the conclusion that by accusing the Russian Foreign Ministry of anti-Semitism, "they start playing on a losing side and their accusations are instantly shattered."
"Ms. Joly is not a diplomat, she is a politician, and she decided to play on the internal field," he added.
On Wednesday, the Russian ambassador in Ottawa was summoned to the Canadian Foreign Ministry. As Joly said at a joint press conference with her British colleague James Cleverly following their talks in Toronto, this was done "to condemn face to face the antisemitic comments made by Russia's Minister Sergey Lavrov" and also to express dissatisfaction about the actions of Russian forces during the military special operation in Ukraine, including the situation with the destroyed house in Dnepr.
Lavrov statements
Speaking at a press conference on the results of the activities of Russian diplomacy in 2022 Lavrov said: "Just as Napoleon mobilized practically all of Europe against the Russian Empire, just as Hitler mobilized and captured… the majority of European countries and sent them against the Soviet Union, now the United States has organized a coalition from practically all Europeans, who are part of NATO, and also from the EC members as well and by proxy through Ukraine they are waging war against our country pursuing the same task: the final solution of the ‘Russian question. Just as Hitler wanted to finally solve the Jewish question. Now, if you read Western politicians, <...> they unequivocally say that Russia must suffer a strategic defeat," Lavrov said.
Earlier, the Russian Foreign Minister spoke about the incident with a missile hitting a residential building in the city of Dnepr. He noted that Ukrainian air defense systems "contrary to all the laws of warfare, contrary to international humanitarian law, are located in residential areas." According to him, this explains why the tragedy occurred.