Article content continued

“I haven’t been briefed on what happened. I’m not sure if Mr. Chretien has chosen to brief our mission in Moscow. We would be curious to know what was discussed,” Kenney said during a symposium in Ottawa on Canada’s security relations with the European Union.

“All I can tell you is that the government of Canada has taken whatever opportunity we’ve had in meeting Mr. Putin, such as Prime Minister Harper’s brief encounter with him at the margins of the G20 in Melbourne, to be very clear about our insistence that Russia get out of Ukraine.

“We would hope that Mr. Chretien would have taken — availed himself — of the opportunity to convey the same message.”

Harper has avoided direct contact with Putin, save for a brief and memorable handshake at the G20 summit in Australia last year, at which he tersely told the Russian leader to “get out” of Ukraine.

Harper’s spokesman Stephen Lecce said the government wants to know what Chretien told Putin.

“Mr. Chretien was clearly not representing the government of Canada at this meeting,” Lecce said in an email. “Our government’s position on the Putin regime is clear.”

A spokesman for Chretien did not respond to a request for comment.

In the TASS news agency report, Putin is seen smiling at Chretien that shows the two men seating in gold-and-white arm chairs in an ornate room.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying the two “discussed the painful points of current international situation.”