Bear and Beaver: A Survey of Russian-Canadian Relations after Euromaidan

As with many of its relations with other Western countries, Russia's relationship with Canada took a turn for the worse after the Euromaidan protests in 2013-14 and the subsequent change in Ukraine's government. As a result of Russian reactions to the situation, Canada imposed sanctions on Russian officials and reiterated its support of the NATO alliance and its Eastern European members. In turn, Russia sanctioned some Canadian officials. Yet cooperation continued between the two northern countries in some aspects, such as through the Open Skies Treaty and in regards to issues surrounding the Arctic. This episode will survey Canadian-Russian relations since 2014, when Canada has been under the leadership of two Prime Minsters - Conservative leader Stephen Harper (2006-2015) and Liberal leader Justin Trudeau (2015-present).

Note: I recorded most of this episode in January 2021, and I uploaded it in late February. As noted in the episode, the New START treaty had been extended in early February, after I started recording.

The whole 2015 Munk Debate, from which I used some audio clips, can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWKC33xIwTs

Music from https://filmmusic.io "Deliberate Thought" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Footnote jingle: "DrivingRockBeat 131BPM" by pbdlugoss of Freesound.org