Russia not totally isolated by international community in wake of invasion

Nations around the world have condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and levelled increasingly harsh sanctions, but some countries are still neutral in the conflict – and at least one is being accused of throwing Russia a lifeline.

Canada announced another round of sanctions Friday, including measures directly targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

"We want to make sure we're suffocating the Russian regime. That's our goal,” said Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly.

China has spoken of the need for dialogue to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict, but has stopped short of criticising Putin for the invasion.

In fact, China’s customs agency lifted a restriction Thursday on the importation of Russian wheat that had been put in place over concerns about fungus contamination.

“You don’t go and throw a lifeline to Russia in the middle of a period when they’re invading another country. That is simply unacceptable,” said Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. “I would urge all nations to say this is not a time to be easing trade restrictions with Russia. We should all be doing the exact opposite.”

Hua Chunying, spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, actually blamed western allies for Russia’s illegal invasion.

“When expanding NATO eastward five times to the vicinity of Russia and deplaying advanced offensive strategic weapons in breach of its assurances to Russia, did the U.S. ever think about the consequence of pushing a big country to the wall?” she wrote on Twitter.

Florian Gassner, associate professor of Central and Eastern European Studies at the University of British Columbia, worries the economic sanctions on Russia are less effective if it still has an outlet for trade.

“The fear is that Russia will not be hurt but simply redirect its resources, and also its demand, to other markets,” said Gassner. “And if China is able to meet those demands, both in regards to import and export, they could successfully undercut the impact the sanctions are supposed to have.”

At a session of the United Nations Security Council on Friday, Russia vetoed a resolution condemning the Ukraine invasion.

China, India and the United Arab Emirates abstained from voting on the resolution, which all other Security Council members supported.

Some former Soviet states, including Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, have tried to remain neutral in the conflict.

According to Gassner, their economies are too closely linked to Russia for their governments to risk angering Putin, which could bring possible retaliation.

Belarus, another former Soviet state, is in full co-operation with Russia, and has allowed its territory to be used as a staging ground for the portion of the invasion coming from Ukraine’s northern flank.

“Right now people are quipping, quite correctly so, that Belarus has basically been degraded to an aircraft carrier for the Russian Federation,” said Gassner.