Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said last week that regime change in Moscow is “definitely” the goal when announcing Canada was banning the import of Russian steel and metal as part of its sanctions campaign against Russia.
“We’re able to see how much we’re isolating the Russian regime right now — because we need to do so economically, politically and diplomatically — and what are the impacts also on society, and how much we’re seeing potential regime change in Russia,” Joly said, according to the National Post.
Joly said regime change and holding Russian President Vladimir Putin accountable was the purpose of the sanctions. “The goal is definitely to do that, is to weaken Russia’s ability to launch very difficult attacks against Ukraine. We want also to make sure that Putin and his enablers are held to account,” she said.
Western sanctions on Russia have failed to hurt the Russian economy in a serious way. Putin’s approval ratings also went up after he launched the war and the US and its allies started implementing sanctions on Russia.
The provocative remarks are not the first time a NATO country’s foreign minister has called for regime change in Moscow. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis claimed last year that the only way to protect other countries near Russia was to remove Putin.
In March 2022, President Biden declared that Putin “cannot remain in power” during a visit to Poland. The White House later walked back his call for regime change, saying that Biden meant “that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change.”
Nitwit.
When Canada’s national anthem starts with “O’ Canada…” it was more of a disappointing sigh than a warm and fuzzy moment.
+++++++
The great power Canada.
O Canada, the 51st state of the US. With zero independent foreign policy and no ability to think critically, also infested with neocons bent on destroying the planet.
There is not a single sovereign nation supporting the hegemon monsters in DC. That includes the UK regardless of what they want to believe. All of them have been whipped to stay the course.
Was there ever a time when Canada was truly sovereign, free from the UK and/or the USA?
Somehow, I think Biden said exactly what he meant to say.
You mean you didn’t buy into this:
Biden meant “that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change.”
They do have to hire a better spin doctor.
His actions support your thinking.
Wow, Canada has their own Lindsey.
It can’t get worse than that.
I can understand what made the Germans go for Hitler, there is Versailles and the unconditional surrender and humiliation, the financially wiped out working middle class.
But what could possibly motivate the people in democracies with relative high standards of living to submit to the trashy governments we now have? Why would Canada, Sweden, Finland, Australia, EU member states and others accept such deranged policies? Did the people cast well informed votes for the criminal present governments? The parliaments at best have voices in the desert, not one person with a sense of responsibility and with character and a conscience in the Biden administration for example. How can that be possible in a real and functioning democracy?
My answer, democracies turned to POS.
Well the answer could be that they are victims of group think, but could also be that you are wrong and that these people actually understand what is in their best interest. I can see that you are pretty attached to the first option, but have you actually considered the second seriously?
I have, and I do consider it. I do believe that the Trump followers have real legitimate grievances and that the Democrats let the working middle class down. I also believe the working people have nowhere to turn to. For decades there has been no real political dialogue, there is, in my book, a very cynical controlled press manipulating public opinion. How else could they possibly believe all the BS indoctrination by MSM. Add the control of history text books in school and the low level of TV entertainment. I recall the civil rights movement and the outstanding courageous leaders they had and I do recall how they were demonized and defamed in the media. The New Deal was made possible with the unions, socialists and communist leadership. Nothing like that is left anymore , we do not have an honest dialog.
The moment social justice is mentioned and immediately it is called socialism and it is the end of any dialog. The corporate elite and the political establishment own and control the nation, they act like the owners of the nations wealth and fund the MIC with it.
You are here ignoring the very informed decisions taken by people in Sweden and Finland – which as I see it is about the best indicator that this is not just group think mark II – these people were not swayed by the ‘Bush’ arguments for the Iraq war – and have not in general been following the Washington line.
These countries are further (along with several other Scandinavian countries also backing Ukraine) what by US commentators are labeling socialist countries – and most certainly not the place where any dialog is ended by mentioning that some standpoint may be or seem socialist.
Thus you still have an issue accounting for why most countries in Europe are supporting the Ukrainians.
There was no real public debate. The press is controlled, the elite is corrupt without a free press and a free debate there is no real Democracy, they govern manipulated populations. Any other time Scholz would not have been elected, but the socialist party is in shreds like the democratic party is here. I must point out that the USA is in control of the EU, the UK used to be the proxy for the US in Brussels, every international institution has been discredit by US influence, the UN as well as the ICC. The Western powers are being controlled by characterless delusional people. The people are being confronted with done deals, their interests don’t count.
This again must be about the US, because it does not hold true for either Sweden or Finland – in Sweden the government was especially slow to follow the change in public opinion. The notion that they should have been driving this is patently absurd – at every opportunity they were acting less than enthusiastically.
https://globalaffairs.org/commentary-and-analysis/blogs/major-shift-swedish-public-supports-nato-membership
Scholz is in Germany already a NATO member and one of the least proactive European politicians on supporting Ukraine – so not really relevant here and btw not a strong driver of support for Ukraine.
This control is at best very tenuous – it has not managed to get neither Finland nor Sweden to join NATO or support any of the earlier US led wars – it also in general has not allowed the US to get a trade deal with EU and not resolved any of the earlier trade conflicts between the two.
In short I’d argue that while it is true that the US has managed to get its NATO partners to support it where they were not always backed by strong majorities of their electorates – this is not such a case – there are very significant majorities behind the change in the stance in Finland and a majority behind the change in Sweden – neither have ever before supported US led war initiatives – so this is not a case of the European minnows reluctantly being led by their US masters.
You only see what you want to see, you are afraid to open your eyes and face reality.
No I observe what has happened in Sweden and Finland – what I see I can back up with sources – you on the other hand make assertions that are not backed up by neither sources nor actual election results or any other observable facts as far as I can see.
What is in it for the Canadian people? They need a regime change, not the Russians, their government is selling them to please the hegemon in DC.
The Russian people know they are really defending their motherland.
Ms Joly is obviously taking her orders from Washington (Canada is a vassal state of the US) which has not yet realized that 88% of the world’s population live in countries NOT sanctioning Russia and the only countries that are sanctioning Russia other than the US are the vassal states of the US or soon to be vassal states of the US … Sweden and Finland.
I guess that this will change from an SMO into a Shock and Awe War then.
This sucks. With luck the obliteration will be confined to Eastern Europe and Western Russia, and will remain conventional and not nuclear
I am not hopeful.