An unhelpful intervention
Former government leaders often find it difficult to leave behind the egoboosting lifestyle that comes with election to their country’s highest office. Limousines, swank hotels, photo ops with similarly eminent international worthies … it’s a heady world to lose just because you’re no longer in power.
Thus it must have been a tempting proposition when former prime minister Jean Chrétien was offered the opportunity of a one-on-one session with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Chrétien is a member of the Inter-Action Council, an old-boys club of former presidents and prime ministers that gets together regularly to discuss world affairs and issue recommendations and endorsements.
As co-chair of the council, it is logical enough that he would have been the one chosen to meet Putin, reportedly in a palace near Moscow. The Russian news agency, Tass, said Putin agreed to a “brief conversation” with “former prime minister Jean-Loup Chrétien” based on warm relations they formed when Chrétien was prime minister. (Tass appears to have confused the former prime minister with Jean-Loup Chrétien, a French general and former astronaut who took part in two Soviet space missions).
“It’s well known that they have friendly relations,” said Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov, “or I’d even say relations of partnership.” Indeed, in January of last year, Chrétien was awarded Russia’s Order of Friendship for “his substantial contribution to the strengthening and development of friendship and co-operation with the Russian Federation.”
Still, it is an ill-chosen moment for him to be meeting with Putin, who figures at the heart of two of Canada’s most vexing foreign-policy dilemmas. The government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, along with Canada’s allies, has sought to ostracize Russia over its invasion and annexation of parts of neighbouring Ukraine, imposing sanctions and offering extensive financial aid and military assistance to Kyev. Even as Chrétien was clinking glasses with Putin in Moscow, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin was visiting Ottawa to offer thanks for Canada’s backing, and to urge Foreign Minster Rob Nicholson to send peacekeepers as well. Harper’s view of the matter was put bluntly when he advised Putin at a November summit to “get out of Ukraine.”
Putin is also the most powerful friend still supporting the infamous Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, in whose country Canadian warplanes, alongside those of other members of the international coalition against ISIL, are currently conducting bombing raids. Syria is a close ally of Iran, to which Russia recently announced it would sell a sophisticated $800 million missile-defence system, even as Western countries (including Russia) are seeking a deal to contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
The Conservative government is understandably upset at Chrétien’s appearance on the scene, though it can hardly claim to have been caught off guard given that the meeting was announced a week ago. Still, Defence Minister Jason Kenney said that he would be “curious to know” what was discussed, and that he hoped Chrétien “availed himself ” of the chance to repeat Harper’s warning to leave Ukraine alone.
Chrétien is no longer in public office, but that does not stop him being a public figure, and one inextricably identified with Canada. His membership in his new club, like his familiarity with Putin, is due solely to the office he once held, which was entrusted to him by Canadian voters and comes with the duty to represent Canada’s best interests at all times. That responsibility did not stop once he quit sleeping at 24 Sussex Drive.
His visit with Putin, at a time when the Western world is trying to impress upon the Russian leader the dangers of the expansionist path he has pursued, is unlikely to advance the aims of Canadian foreign policy, to say the least, and hands the increasingly isolated Putin an important public relations coup.
No doubt Chrétien disagrees with the Harper government’s foreign policy, as he does with much else it has done. That does not alter the fact that it represents elected authority and he, whatever he was once, does not. As a private citizen, he is of course free to disagree with the policy of the day. But as a former prime minister, he is obliged not to act in a way that interferes with the conduct of that policy.
It is impossible that he would not understand these implications. In going ahead with his visit anyway he diminishes his stature and offers poor service to the country he once led.
It is an ill-chosen moment for Chrétien to be meeting with Putin