Are COVID-19 protests in Canada a factor in Putin's Ukraine timeline?
CTV
Joe Biden's administration had two different and seemingly disparate international crises on its hands Friday -- the situation between Russia and Ukraine, and the COVID-19 protests in Canada blocking trade corridors.
Sullivan's message was chilling: If Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to invade Ukraine, he said, it could happen before the end of the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, which are scheduled to wrap up this coming Sunday.
At the same time, the White House had grown worried enough about the COVID-19 protests blocking vital commercial trade corridors at the Canada-U.S. border that it urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to take a harder line.
Experts in both countries are wondering if the two situations have more in common than an initial glance might suggest.
Bessma Momani, a political-science professor at the University of Waterloo and a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, said she sees earmarks of Russia's foreign interference techniques in the social-media maelstrom surrounding the protests in Canada.
