Article content

OTTAWA – The Canadian government has quietly ordered at least one Russian diplomat to leave the country within the next two weeks, the Ottawa Citizen has learned.

It wasn’t immediately clear Monday why Lt.-Col. Yury Bezler has been declared persona non grata, including whether the move is related to recent events in Ukraine, the recent stabbing of another Russian diplomat, or some other incident.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Canada quietly orders a Russian defence attaché at the Ottawa embassy to leave the country Back to video

There was also no indication whether any other Russian diplomats have been told to leave.

The Russian Embassy did not immediately respond to questions, while Canada’s Foreign Affairs department refused to comment.

Bezler has served as assistant defence attaché at the Russian Embassy in Ottawa since arriving in Canada less than a year ago, and was one of three Russian military officers working out of the embassy.

His expulsion comes amid tensions between Russia and the West over the situation in Ukraine, where the two sides are embroiled in the region’s worst diplomatic crisis since the Cold War.

Canada expelled nine Russian military officers from Canada last month after suspending military-to-military co-operation between the two countries over Russia’s moves to annex the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine and its deployment of troops on Ukraine’s eastern border.

But unlike Bezler, those Russian officers were involved in various training exercises with the Canadian Forces, and were not accredited as diplomats.