Commentary

Former foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy will lead Canada's election observation mission to Ukraine as concerns mount that Russia may interfere in the country's democratic process, CBC News has learned. "Mr. Axworthy will head the Canadian delegation of short- and long-term elections observers deployed to Ukraine," said a release obtained by CBC News. "Together, they will observe all aspects of the presidential and legislative elections, including monitoring the participation of women, internally displaced persons and minorities in the electoral process." Axworthy, who served under former prime minister Jean Chretien, led the Organization of American States election observation mission to Peru in 2006. The release also states that Canada will provide funding to counteract the "negative impact of disinformation" in the electoral process as well as supporting electoral reform and efforts to get more women to participate in the country's elections...

Canada has learned a lot about how to protect against foreign election meddling through its support of Ukraine in its ongoing battles with Russia, says Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland. Freeland described Ukraine as a "laboratory" for Russia's disinformation campaigns in cyberspace as she and Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan announced Monday that Canada is extending its military missions in Ukraine and Iraq — commitments that were both due to expire at the end of the month...

Russia’s Communist U.S.S.R. state model and attempts to export it worldwide crashed. The U.S.S.R. satellites and republics found it too repressive. It was dumped unceremoniously by some half-billion people by 1991. The model was too authoritarian, unjust, riddled with corruption, poverty, wars, and murders. It was dangerous; dismissed by all except dictators. One of the latest to embrace it, Venezuela, now finds itself in economic and political ruin while it’s substantial energy wealth is sequestered, conveniently, in Russia. True, China’s Communist model works, but to succeed it adopted a healthy dose of western elements. Now the Kremlin is trying again. In...

It is often assumed that unpopular political decisions regarding reforms cannot take place in an election year. Fearful of losing the support of voters as elections approach, few politicians are willing to push for disruptive changes even if they can bring long-term benefits for their country. However, as Ukraine’s economy lags far behind that of its European neighbors and as Russia continues its military and hybrid aggression against Ukraine, many experts argue that Kyiv cannot afford to avoid or delay reforms that will make its economy more productive and its society more prosperous...

On February 19, 2019 Etobicoke Centre MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj addressed the Special Session of the Verkhovna Rada dedicated to the fifth anniversary of the commencement of Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine. Wrzesnewskyj, appearing as the Chair of the Canadian NATO Parliamentary Association and the Chair of the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Group, was invited by the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Andriy Parubiy, to deliver remarks to the Special Session and to witness the historic signing of a constitutional amendment strategically committing Ukraine on the paths toward both EU and NATO memberships...

Russia – the main ally of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad – not only sends troops and planes to the Middle East country where at least 500,000 have been murdered in the civil war that started in 2011. The Kremlin is also enthusiastically exported vile anti-Ukrainian propaganda to Syria. Pro-government Syrian Facebook groups often publish texts or pictures, blaming Ukraine for supporting jihadist groups. Anyone can find cartoons with two figures hugging, one of whom impersonates Ukraine and the other – ISIS or al-Qaeda. Or people can read articles about rebel training camps somewhere near Lviv or Kharkiv, with combatants aimed at overthrowing Assad...

In early 2015, Ukraine’s pro-Russian separatists defeated government forces in the city of Debaltseve in a major battle that seemed to prove something about the balance of forces in the conflict: The ragtag insurgents could face the country’s conventional military on their own and win. But it later became clear that Russian troops deployed in the area helped defeat the Ukrainian forces—a fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin had tried to hide. How was the secret revealed? Russian soldiers involved in the fighting posted details of the battle on social media...

Christopher Miller’s article “‘Banderite’ Rebrand: Ukrainian Police Declare Admiration For Nazi Collaborators To Make A Point” was published last week on RFE/RL. The article tells about the “I am a banderite” flashmob launched by some Ukrainian police members as an apology to their colleague’s phrase “Lay down, Bandera” when on 9 February police arrested and beat members of the nationalist C14 organization, which had come to a rally of presidential candidate Yuliya Tymoshenko with a “Who killed Katya Handziuk” banner. It is widely suspected that a high-ranking member of Tymoshenko’s party was involved in ordering the murder of Handziuk, a city official and activist fighting corruption in the south-Ukrainian city of Kherson. The arrest of C14 took place during the rally apparently without reason, leading to suspicions that the...

A Russ1 Television segment recently aired delivering an unprovoked, disparaging and rhetorical diatribe directed at the Ukrainian community in Canada. The confounding and vitriolic segment is not only misleading, it is also incredibly narrow in scope. Devoid of objectivity, or anything even remotely resembling truth or accuracy, this would-be ‘expose’ is so full of contempt, innuendo and half-truths that it can hardly be regarded as ‘journalism’ at all. It is, rather, an over-simplified, arrogant, hateful and blatant piece of propaganda, couched as a pseudo op-ed report, aimed solely and squarely at the Ukrainian diaspora. Who would claim production of such a piece? And why? The segment aired on January 13, 2019. Understanding the roots and nature of this propaganda piece begins with Russ24 anchorman, Dmitry Kiselyov, who introduced the...

Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent Russian military analyst, says that even though Moscow will not confirm or deny the presence of nuclear weapons in occupied Crimea, there can be no doubt that the Russians have placed them there because of the presence of nuclear-capable delivery systems. He tells Ukraine’s Gordon news agency that most of them are probably still in storage bunkers, but some of them may already be installed in launch vehicles for possible use (gordonua.com/ news/crimea/felgengauer-rossiya-ne-budet-podtverzhdat-ili-oprovergat-nalichie-yadernogo-oruzhiya-v-krymu-no-ono-tam-est-mozhno-ne-somnevatsya-395148.html). The situation...