Mr. Chair, I want to thank my colleague, the NDP critic for defence, for the great work that he does on the defence committee.
I share his view that there is definitely a concern in Washington, as there is here, that Russia is no longer a trusted partner in the geopolitics not only of eastern Europe and Ukraine but also with respect to the aggression it is showing around the world, and its complete dismissive attitude toward other world leaders and the rule of law from an international standpoint. What it did in Crimea is a case in point on how it is prepared to redraw international boundaries without any respect or apprehension at all for how the world may react. We do have to continue isolating Vladimir Putin on the world stage. We have to continue the sanctions until Russia and the people of Russia realize that the path they are on is not acceptable to the world as a whole.
There is a concern from the lessons learned on how Vladimir Putin thinks. The member is correct in pointing out that Vladimir Putin will test President Trump. He tested President Obama early on in his presidency when President Obama made the decision that he was going to draw a red line on whether or not he was going to bring military action against Syria for the use of chemical weapons and then did nothing. That was the signal for Vladimir Putin to actually invade Ukraine. When he sees someone waffling, he takes it as a weakness and an opportunity to advance his own imperialistic aspirations to expand the Russian Federation. Although Vladimir Putin is KGB trained, has been the President of Russia for a very long time, and is probably the richest man in the world, we have to also realize that this individual has an imperialistic view of a return of the old days, not of the Soviet Union but of the Russian empire itself.