Russia threat to Western democracy
Ukrainian foreign minister warns G7 on eve of meeting
TORONTO — Russia is using Ukraine as a test ground for its information war against Western democracy, Ukraine’s foreign minister told G7 ministers meeting here on Sunday.
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland wants the disruptive influence of Russia on the West to be a top agenda item, and she set the table — literally — for Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin to deliver that message to her G7 counterparts. Freeland invited Klimkin to be part of Sunday’s talks, hosting him and other ministers at her home for a traditional brunch that was prepared by her own children.
“It was amazing how she organized it, in the sense of creating this friendly atmosphere of hospitality with ministers sitting around the table with her kids … what they had personally prepared,” Klimkin said Sunday afternoon.
Their conversation was decidedly less festive, with Klimkin pressing the G7 to make a strong, unified stand against what he described as Kremlin efforts to destabilize democracy through election interference and other cyber-meddling.
He said the petri dish for that strategy remains his country, which Russia invaded in 2014, annexing Crimea and occupying its eastern Donbass region.
“Fundamentally, Ukraine is perceived by many and also by Russia as a sort of test range for testing Russian nonconventional warfare — hybrid war,” Klimkin said.
He called this part of a bigger war “against the democratic transatlantic community.” Supporting Ukraine, he said, should be seen “as a part of a bigger pattern.”
“Fighting along with Ukraine would give an immense asset to the whole democratic community in the sense of understanding Russian efforts to destabilize the western world.”
Freeland views the clash of the forces of democracy and authoritarianism as a defining feature of our time, and she has singled out Russian President Vladimir Putin as a major disrupter.
Klimkin said all G7 ministers are committed to protecting democratic institutions. That includes the Trump administration in the United States, where former FBI director Robert Mueller is leading the special investigation of possible collusion between Russia and the campaign that brought Trump to power in 2016.
Klimkin said he had a “great meeting” in Toronto on Saturday with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan.
“We have clear, consistent bipartisan support on (Capitol) Hill. We have such support from the administration.”
Trump has nominated his CIA director, Mike Pompeo, as his next secretary of state, but Pompeo isn’t in Toronto because he continues to face opposition to his confirmation.
The G7 foreign ministers began meetings in Toronto on Sunday about the world’s many peace and security challenges, with the ongoing tensions with Russia and the North Korean nuclear crisis taking centre stage.
The gathering comes days after North Korea pledged to suspend testing of its nuclear and longrange missiles and close its nuclear test site, and days ahead of this week’s historic summit between North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
Trump is also working on his own landmark meeting with the North Korean leader in the coming weeks, after dispatching Pompeo on a secret mission to meet Kim two weeks ago to lay the groundwork.
Freeland will be joined Monday by Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, who will lead his G7 interior minister counterparts in talks on terrorism and cybersecurity.