The Canadian government imposed sanctions Tuesday against Russia’s Rosneft and other companies in response to Russia’s support of anti-government militants in Ukraine.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper imposed economic sanctions and travel bans against 37 Russian and Ukrainian people and 17 Russian and Ukrainian entities in coordination with the European Union and the United States, Reuters said.
“The collective sanctions imposed to date by Canada and its partners are putting real economic pressure on the Putin regime and its collaborators,” Harper said.
Further details about the sanctions have not been disclosed yet.
Canada had resisted joining the European Union and United States when the two powers imposed a series sanctions on Russian individuals and companies last year after President Vladimir Putin began supporting pro-Russian militants in Ukraine.
Rosneft currently holds a 30 percent stake in the ExxonMobil operated Cardium tight oil development in Alberta.
The company fired back at the Canadian government Wednesday, saying that the country’s oil industry is on its death bed.
“In Canada the [oil] industry is in a near-death condition. This was sanctions against the departed, and I don’t mean Rosneft, I mean Canadian oil production,” Rosneft spokesperson Mikhail Leontiev told the Russian News Service.
