Foreign Affairs committee  I don't know that there has been an acceleration, but the trend is steady and very worrisome. I think we should start by at least recalling.... I referred earlier in my testimony to the third wave of democratization. That was the period that began with the fall of the Portuguese military in 1974 and then grew and expanded.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to the committee for inviting me to testify this morning. I applaud the fact that you're initiating a study of Canada's role in democratic development around the world. I've long believed that Canada has a critically important role to play in this field, never more so than at the present time.

Foreign Affairs committee  I addressed that in my hearing, and we heard the statement from the Jewish community that even though they recognize some elements in Ukraine could be a problem, they are confident they're under the control of civil society, that civil society and the government exercise authority, and that these forces are really an insignificant minority.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, that's my understanding. Of course, they're preventing people from going back right now, so that will be very difficult. I think it's also worth noting that my information is that there are now about 100,000 Russian troops stationed along the border with Ukraine. This is a very dangerous circumstance that we're in right now.

Foreign Affairs committee  I'll let Michael reply. He's working on the ground.

Foreign Affairs committee  That is surely one of the points that the NATO Secretary General called attention to. Clearly you could have something like what happened in Crimea happening in Transnistria. There are also other places, such as the city of Kherson, which is right north of Crimea. It's the transit point for a lot of the energy that goes into Crimea.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think one of the purposes for targeted sanctions against the people around Putin, the political operatives and the economic elite who are helping him implement his current agenda, should be to give such people pause and lead them to the conclusion that there is no future in following Putin.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. I mean, there—

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much. It's a great question. Yes, I very strongly agree that we have to be active now and continuously between now and the May 25 election. One thing that's going to be very important to do is to support independent media and observers who can monitor the potential disruption of this election by Russia and its agents, and to publicize that and do everything possible to prevent it from happening.

Foreign Affairs committee  We had a Russian specialist who came to NED last week and gave a talk. She said that she had no idea, and she is from Russia and she is a specialist, so I don't want to pretend to know. I don't have a crystal ball. But what I said in my testimony is something that I deeply believe.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. It’s a great honour for me to present testimony on Ukraine to the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Commons. It is also great for our two capitals to be linked electronically. Let me note also that at the beginning of the hearing we heard Canadian bipartisanship, and that's also reflected in the National Endowment for Democracy.