(Reuters) – Moscow formally protested to Canada on Friday after the country’s U.N. envoy described a murdered Russian blogger as “a vitriolic propagandist” and a hate-monger, the foreign ministry said.
Bob Rae, Canada’s permanent representative to the United Nations, made the remarks after Vladlen Tatarsky – a cheerleader for Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine – died in a bomb blast in St Petersburg last Sunday.
In a statement, Russia’s foreign ministry said it summoned a senior Canadian diplomat to strongly protest about Rae’s remarks, which it described as “yet another manifestation of the Russophobia being fomented in Canada.”
The Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is one of Ukraine’s most vocal supporters. Rae made the comments after Russia’s U.N. mission complained that Western media outlets and international organizations had not reacted to the death of Tatarsky, who it described as a journalist.
“He was not a ‘journalist’. He was a vitriolic propagandist, a spreader of hate and misinformation with a criminal record. Russian journalists are either in exile or in jail,” Rae tweeted.
Russian investigators have charged Darya Trepova, a 26-year-old St Petersburg resident, with terrorist offences over the killing of Tatarsky. Russia’s health ministry said 42 others were injured in the blast.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
