Was Kirill Kalinin some kind of intelligence operative, as the Trudeau Government and The Globe and Mail now want us to think, or just an unusually talkative and savvy social media spokesperson for the Russian Embassy in Canada, as reported in the National Post’s Friday morning scoop that he was among those caught in the NATO-wide purge of Russian diplomats implies?
It's an interesting question, although probably not all that significant in a world where all diplomatic representatives of all countries in all foreign posts are authorized by their hosts to keep their eyes open and report home on what they see.
That said, Kalinin's high-profile public role as press secretary of the Russian Embassy with the senior rank of First Secretary ... was quite unusual in the annals of diplomacy for an envoy who was not an ambassador.
The more significant question is whether Kalinin was some kind of political saboteur who interfered in Canada’s democracy, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claims someone on the Russian Foreign Ministry's diplomatic staff was up to.
As the PM told a press conference Wednesday, with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg standing at his side, someone "used their diplomatic status to undermine Canada's security or interfere in our democracy." (more...)
No comments:
Post a Comment