[LINK] "Russians scorn Harper's 'shirt-fronting' of Putin"

[rfmcdonald]

CBC's Nahlah Ayed suggests a certain amount of confusion in Russia regarding Canada's hard-line approach to Russia over events in Ukraine. Her suggestions that the relative popularity of a hard-line approach, along with a fairly distant and disconnected Russian-Canadian relationship beforehand that was rated a low priority, seems key. Stephen Harper's denunciation of Putin at the G20 summit in Australia starts off her essay.

While not exactly a geopolitical "dust-up," as some described it, it's given Harper international headlines and a lot of applause, particularly among Ukrainians and their supporters.

In Moscow though, the incident has likely been added to a litany of Canadian "aggression" that, if not raising the ire of Russians, certainly raises many eyebrows.

Even before this latest confrontation, Russians were bewildered by what they see as Canada's "militancy" on Ukraine, putting bilateral relations "on the brink of collapse."

"Canada is neither a global player, nor a world power, its army is weak and poorly armed. Why is Canada so strongly against Russia?" asked an article in the English edition of the newspaper Pravda earlier this year.

Once seen as a largely benign, fellow Northern nation whose worst affront, from the Russian point of view, was narrowly winning the 1972 hockey series, Canada now, after nearly a year of tough talk on Ukraine, has Russians scratching their heads.

"I fail to understand why Canada is so hurt by what's going on in Ukraine. Please explain it to me. I fail to understand it," Duma member Alexander Romanovitch, a representative on the foreign affairs committee, said in a recent interview with CBC News.