Yushchenko calls for tougher sanctions against Russia as Canadian diplomats expelled by Kremlin

Former Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko, whose face was disfigured 14 years ago in a poisoning he blames on the Kremlin, says the West needs to go further in confronting Moscow after the nerve-agent attack on former double agent Sergey Skripal if it wants to bring such attacks to an end.

The diplomatic hostilities continued Friday as Canadian Ambassador John Kur was summoned to the headquarters of the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow, where he was informed that Russia would be expelling four Canadian diplomats. It was a tit-for-tat move: On Monday, Canada expelled four Russian diplomats in a gesture of solidarity with Britain, following Prime Minister Theresa May’s declaration that it was “highly likely” the Russian state was involved in the attack in England on Mr. Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

In a statement on Friday, the Russian foreign ministry said the ambassadors of 23 countries, including Canada, had been called in and handed “notes of protest” over “their unjustified expulsions of Russian diplomats based on Britain’s proof-free accusations of Russia related to the Skripal case.”

The Canadian government confirmed Friday that the four diplomats were declared persona non grata by Moscow and expelled from Russia with their families.

Mr. Yushchenko said the Kremlin had a long history of using assassinations and attempted assassinations to advance its foreign and domestic policy aims. He said Moscow would continue to use the tactic unless the West came up with a more serious policy deterrent.

“Ejecting diplomats should be only one of many instruments that should also include increased economic sanctions, such as cutting Russia off from the SWIFT [banking] system and diversifying from dependence on Russian oil, gas and investment. The Russian regime will keep pushing and testing until the West comes together and responds with a unified and determined policy,” Mr. Yushchenko said in a written exchange with The Globe and Mail.

Britain and its allies have expelled more than 150 diplomats since the attack on Mr. Skripal. The United States also ordered the closing of the Russian consulate in Seattle.

The Kremlin, which denies any involvement in the attack on Mr. Skripal – or the deaths of other Russian exiles – has vowed a “symmetrical” response to each gesture. The British and U.S. consulates in St. Petersburg have both been ordered to close, as has the British Council cultural centre in Moscow.

While no one has been charged with his poisoning, Mr. Yushchenko says he has little doubt that Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin was behind it, as well as a string of other poisonings, including the March 4 attack on Mr. Skripal, which left the former Russian spy in critical condition.

Mr. Skripal’s daughter Yulia, who was visiting her father in the small English city of Salisbury, also fell gravely ill. British doctors say she has now begun to recover.

The Skripal case has brought new focus to a string of mysterious deaths and illnesses that have befallen Russian exiles in recent years.

The Globe and Mail revealed this week that French police are investigating the 2012 death of Alexander Perepilichny – a 44-year-old anti-corruption whistle-blower who collapsed while jogging near his home in England immediately after a four-day visit to Paris – as a case of “criminal conspiracy and assassination.” British toxicologists found an extremely rare and toxic herb called gelsemium in Mr. Perepilichny’s stomach, and a coroner’s inquest into his death resumes next month in Britain.

British authorities are also taking a second look at more than a dozen other cases of Russian exiles – all of them Kremlin critics – who died on British soil under mysterious circumstances.

The most infamous case remains the 2006 murder of Alexander Litvinenko – a former KGB agent who had become an outspoken critic of Mr. Putin – using radioactive polonium that was slipped into his tea while he sat in the lobby of a London hotel. The two other former KGB agents accused in that attack remain in Russia, despite formal requests for their extradition.

“The common factor in the series of poisonings is that, in each case, the Kremlin perceived a contradiction to either its foreign or domestic policy goals,” Mr. Yushchenko wrote. “They needed to eliminate me to continue to move Ukraine back into their post-imperialist state. Litvinenko was a vocal critic abroad; in Skripal’s case, they needed a pre-election distraction, a foreign enemy to frighten and infuriate the electorate” ahead of Russia’s recent presidential election.

Mr. Putin handily won another six-year term on March 14, taking 77 per cent of the vote, amid allegations of ballot-box stuffing and the coercion of voters.

Mr. Yushchenko was forced to seek urgent treatment in 2004 after falling ill during Ukraine’s hotly contested election campaign that year, which pitted him against pro-Russian candidate Viktor Yanukovych. Toxicologists in Vienna found dioxin levels 6,000 times above normal in Mr. Yushchenko’s blood.

Mr. Yushchenko emerged from hospital three weeks later with his previously handsome face covered in lesions. He became president following the Orange Revolution, the first of Ukraine’s two pro-Western uprisings.

Earlier this week, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland denounced the Russian government over the poisoning of Mr. Skripal and his daughter. “The Salisbury nerve-agent attack was a despicable, heinous and reckless act that endangered the lives of hundreds and violated long-standing conventions on the use of chemical weapons,” Ms. Freeland’s press secretary, Adam Austen, said Friday. “This was a direct attack on the rules-based international order.”

Mr. Austen said the expulsion of Russian personnel from Canada “was in no way aimed at the Russian people, with whom Canada has long and fruitful ties. Canada remains committed to dialogue and co-operation with Russia on issues where we face common challenges,” he said in an e-mailed statement.

Mr. Austen added that Russia will be on the agenda at the Group of 7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Toronto in April. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is hosting G7 leaders in Charlevoix, Que., for a two-day meeting starting June 8.

With files from Shawn McCarthy in Ottawa