Canada has denied entry visas to a Russian delegation that was planning to attend a meeting of the Proliferation Security Initiative, an effort started by President George Bush in 2003 to curb weapons of mass destruction.

Canada has evidently denied the visas as part of its sanctions regime against the Kremlin for the war in the Crimea and the Donbass. Like the US and EU, Canada has barred entry to high officials and business figures in Russia over the Ukrainian war, and has also denied visas on a case-by-case basis.

Last September, Canada denied visas to space officials to attend a prestigious astronautical conference, for example. The Toronto Symphony Orchestra also cancelled a performance by Valentina Lisitsa, a Ukrainian pianist who emigrated to the US in 1991 and has taken the side of the Russian-backed separatists, after she tweeted hateful remarks about Ukrainians. The cancellation sparked protests from some performers who characterized the TSO as succumbing to pressure from Ukrainian interest groups.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has fired off an angry response (translation by The Interpreter):

Regrettably, official Ottawa, inflated for internal political reasons a Russophobia hysteria, is fighting common sense and trying arrogate to itself without prior arragement the right to determine who can and who cannot take part in an important multilateral activity which, through the force of circumstance, is being held on Canadian territory. We would like to recall that Russia is a key partner in the war against the spread of WMDs and is a full-fledged member of the Initiative to Combat WMDs and does not need in this case any Canadian “benevolence.” The problems of non-proliferatoin are too serious a field in internaitonal relations. Settling local political scores, which the government of Stephen Harper has been obsessively doing, is inappropriate and counterproductive. Such hostile actions of course will not be left without a response.

This latest round of visa bans follows an incident at a recent hockey match between Canada and Russia in the International Hockey Federation’s (IHF) World Championship.

The Canadians beat the Russians 6-1, and at the end of the game, when the Canadian team gathered to sing the national anthem with their fans, the Russians walked off the ice.

One critical Russian blogger published a video of the incident.