Canada faces stark choices in dealing with resurgent Russia: expert

CHISINAU, Moldova – Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird says he hopes Russia has seen the “virtue” of diplomacy to resolve the crisis in Ukraine, while a defence expert warns that Canada should be paying more attention to Russia’s claims in the Arctic.

Baird sounded hopeful about talks between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, aimed a diffusing the tension in eastern Europe.

But Baird added Russia’s actions will speak more loudly than its words, again calling on Moscow to withdraw its troops from Crimea and along the borders of eastern Ukraine.

Baird met on Monday with senior government ministers in Moldova, which is squeezed in between Ukraine and Romania, and assured them that Canada strongly believes in the country’s territorial integrity.

But defence expert Rob Huebert of the University of Calgary says the Harper government should be paying closer attention to Canada’s own yet-to-be-defined border with Russia in the Arctic.

His warning comes after a published report last week quoted a former senior adviser to Putin as saying Russian military pre-eminence in the Arctic is a “red line” that the West dare not cross.