U.S. envoy Cohen discusses co-operation on Ukraine, convoy protest aftermath
OTTAWA — The American envoy in Ottawa says Canada and the United States are fully aligned on a set of sanctions that will inflict pain on high-level Russians if the country further invades Ukraine.
U.S. Ambassador David Cohen was speaking in an interview in Ottawa hours before President Joe Biden’s announcement that the U.S. had ordered heavy sanctions against Russian banks and business leaders, some of the so-called oligarchs close to President Vladimir Putin.
Cohen says the evolving Russia-Ukraine crisis and the aftermath of the antigovernment protests that paralyzed Ottawa and key border crossings also share a common trait.
Cohen says a lesson from the so-called trucker blockade is how Canada and the U.S. can oppose the rising forces of authoritarianism that exist in countries such as Russia.