Russia’s new ambassador to Canada is unlikely to receive a ‘welcome mat’, says Ottawa Citizen’s Lee Berthiaume.

      In a piece for the Canadian edition, he suggests that the Conservative government will offer ‘a cool response’ to Alexander Darchiev who replaced Georgy Mamedov.

      Darchiev has extensive experience working on U.S. and Canadian issues, adds Berthiaume.

      “Canada’s views on the Russian Federation have been clear and unequivocal for some time,” Ottawa Citizen quotes Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird’s spokesman, Rick Roth. “Russia has thumbed its nose at international law, stirred unrest in Eastern Ukraine, and sought to illegally redraw the borders of Europe. The diplomatic, political and economic isolation of the Putin regime will only continue the longer Russia continues down this dangerous path,” he added in an email.

      Canada has joined an international chorus of countries that slapped against Russian officials and companies, sent Canadian military equipment and personnel to central and eastern Europe, and put on hold all military cooperation between the two countries following the incorporation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014.