Russian Diplomat Allegedly Ousted by Canada

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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A report published by the Citizen has alleged that The Canadian government secretly ordered at least one Russian diplomat, Lt.-Col. Yury Bezler, to leave the country within the next two weeks. The report did not cite confirm sources on Monday as to why Lt.-Col. Yury Bezler was declared persona non grata. Neither has it been confirmed whether the move is related to Russia’s recent involvement in Ukraine, the recent stabbing of another Russian diplomat, or some other incident.

Both The Russian Embassy and Canada’s Foreign Affairs department have refused to comment about the news immediately. Bezler has been the assistant defence attaché at the Russian Embassy in Ottawa since he arrived in Canada less than a year ago. He was one of the three Russian military officers working out of the embassy. The dubious expulsion has come at a time when tensions between Russia and the West are at its peak amid the decaying situation in Ukraine, when the two sides are entangled in the region’s worst diplomatic crisis since the Cold War.

Last month, Canada openly expelled nine Russian military officers from Canada after suspending military-to-military co-operation between the two countries over Russia’s moves to annex the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine and its deployment of troops on Ukraine’s eastern border. Those Russian officers were involved in several training exercises with the Canadian Forces, but unlike them, Bezler was accredited as a diplomat. In a statement issued on Monday, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird accused Russia of “provocative actions in Crimea and elsewhere” in Ukraine, and warned it against interfering in Ukraine’s internal affairs.