D I P L O M AT I C A | QUESTIONS ASKED Russian Ambassador Oleg Stepanov
Ambassador Oleg Stepanov agreed to an interview with Diplomat as 2021 was winding down. This is the first time a Russian ambassador has agreed to speak to the magazine since Georgiy Mamedov did so in 2008 in a wide-ranging interview. Ambassador Stepanov has a master’s in international journalism and public relations and has been with the foreign ministry since 1994. His previous postings abroad include the U.S. (San Francisco and D.C.) and Tblisi, Georgia. For five years from 2016, he served as director of the foreign policy planning department in Moscow. He spoke with Diplomat’s editor, Jennifer Campbell. Diplomat magazine: Thanks for agreeing to speak with us. It’s been a while. In your opinion, what is the state of Russian-Canadian relations? Oleg Stepanov: Well, our relations deserve
better. There were times when they were better. I understand the restraints the political climate has on the whole scope of relations. However, I came here with a positive mandate and that was also expressed by President [Vladimir] Putin, when he received the letters of credence from Alison LeClaire, your ambassador in Moscow. Since we’re neighbours, it’s best to build stable, predictable, transparent relations. We are the two largest countries in the world. We share common interests and challenges as Arctic nations and Russia is interested in building good neighbour relations on that basis. We have some interregional connections. Between Moscow, Quebec and Montreal, for example, [and several other cities.] We have an interest in using our chairmanship of the Arctic Council that just started [in May 2021] to promote more contacts between our Indigenous communities in the north. We share the same goals of assisting [those communities with] sustainability, living conditions, employment conditions and educational conditions. The governor general [Mary
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Simon] is one of the founders of the Arctic Council. When I was presenting my credentials, she expressed an obvious interest in promoting more relations between our Indigenous communities and paying more attention to that issue, in general. Actually, the priorities of Canada and Russia in the Arctic Council overlap and coincide because we face the same challenges and have the same goals. Nowadays when we pay more and more attention to the green transition and the issue of climate change, the Arctic dimension is becoming more and more important because we’re facing the possible melting of permafrost, but we also have to grab the opportunities that a warmer climate in the North presents. In the Arctic Council, there’s an interest to collaborate in the technological sphere. When the North is getting warmer, there needs to be new types of infrastructure for communication and transportation. All of those we share. Of all of the members of the Arctic Council, the positions of Russia and Canada are the closest. As we are on a post-COVID recovery [path], we noted with great satisfaction that [two-way trade in the first nine months of this year] grew 75 per cent for a total of $1.45 billion. It’s not much compared to [trade with] your southern neighbour, but I believe there is mutual interest among the business communities in Russia and Canada to increase trade and mutual investment. We have a very active Canadian Eurasia Russia Business Association, called CERBA. It unites businesses and investors who are represented in the Russian market. It is very satisfied with conditions on the environment. As my president said to your ambassador, we would be interested in having more robust and widespread presence of Canadian business in Russia. So, there are areas of positive co-operation and I must also mention the opportunities that exist between our academic communities. Canada has very strong universities and think-tanks and as a former policy planner for the Russian foreign minister, I was very much involved in that WINTER-SPRING 2022 | JAN-JUNE
JAMES PARK
‘I believe Russia is a democracy’
