Growing Russian threat to Canada
In August 2022, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg warned of the growing Russian threat to Canada:
“The importance of the high north is increasing for NATO and for Canada because we see a significant Russian military buildup with new bases, new weapons system”.
“Russia has set up a new Arctic command. It has opened hundreds of new and former Soviet-era Arctic military sites, including airfields and deep water ports. Russia is also using the region as a test bed for many of its new novel weapon systems.”
Russia has been working for over a decade on significantly expanding its military capabilities and infrastructure in the Arctic. It poses a threat to Canada and the U.S., and to Finland and Sweden directly.
Canada’s defence chief Gen. Wayne Eyre said in March 2022 that protecting Canada’s Arctic region is a key priority for the Armed Forces, and warned that Russia has reoccupied abandoned Cold War bases in its Far North.
Eyre said the threat of a Russian incursion into Canada’s Arctic from the North is “low” at the moment, but cannot be ruled out going forward. He acknowledged that Russia could extend its territorial ambitions to Canada’s Arctic region and invade Canada from the North.
The threat of Russia’s “power projection” into the North Atlantic Ocean from the Arctic is a matter of such concern that NATO included it in its 2022 Strategic Concept.
When I say that Russia threatens the NATIONAL SECURITY of all democratic nations, this is not overstatement or hyperbole. Defeating Russia is a matter of national security for not only Ukraine, but for the entire free world.
Our national governments should be protecting us, not allowing Russia to grow its anti-western axis of terror which is hell-bent on upending and replacing the western-led international security architecture. The threats to each of us are REAL.
The specific threats Russia poses to national security – like in the Arctic to Canada – must be articulated to citizens by our elected officials. When we see the threat an undefeated Russia poses, we will be clamouring for full and robust support for Ukraine to defeat Russia.
And what is even scarier is that Russia is teamed up with China on militarizing and taking control over the Arctic. China has been vastly expanding its military presence in the Arctic region as well.
This is a threat we should counter BEFORE they attack us.