{"id":354104,"date":"2021-10-12T17:24:40","date_gmt":"2021-10-12T14:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/a-young-chrystia-freeland-impressed-soviet-russias-kgb\/"},"modified":"2021-10-12T17:24:40","modified_gmt":"2021-10-12T14:24:40","slug":"a-young-chrystia-freeland-impressed-soviet-russias-kgb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/a-young-chrystia-freeland-impressed-soviet-russias-kgb\/","title":{"rendered":"#A young Chrystia Freeland impressed Soviet Russia’s KGB"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#A young Chrystia Freeland impressed Soviet Russia’s KGB<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n Politics Insider for Oct. 12, 2021: The finance minister’s notable past; Premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault’s power; and a Canadian Nobel prize winner\n <\/div>\n
\n Welcome to a sneak peek of the <\/em>Maclean\u2019s Politics Insider news<\/a>letter. Sign up to get it delivered straight to your inbox in the morning. <\/em><\/p>\n

The Globe has an eye-opening story<\/a> about\u00a0Chrystia Freeland\u2019s <\/strong>youth, how she flummoxed the KGB while she was a student in Ukraine in the 1980s. Drawing on documents from the Soviet archives, Simon Miles<\/strong> shows that Soviet spies were impressed by Freeland \u2014 codename Frida \u2014 even as they tried to prevent her from linking Ukrainian activists with foreign journalists.<\/p>\n

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Ms. Freeland, and her ilk, were a threat to the Soviet Union \u2013 but one which had to be handled delicately: treating her too harshly could give credence to the \u201clibellous\u201d stories told in Ukrainian \u00e9migr\u00e9 communities about how the KGB treated national minorities in the Soviet Union. According to the KGB, Ms. Freeland was more than just an agitator for, as Col. Stroi derisively put it, \u201cthe liberation of Ukraine\u201d who coerced Soviet citizens into staging marches and rallies to attract Western support. She delivered cash, video- and audio-recording equipment, and even a personal computer to her contacts in Ukraine. All of this took place under the watchful eye of the KGB, which surveilled Ms. Freeland. Its officers tailed her wherever she went, tapp<\/a>ed her phone calls to Ukrainians abroad, bugged her accommodation, read her mail, and had an informer, codenamed Slav, insert himself into Ms. Freeland\u2019s circle and gain the young Canadian\u2019s trust.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

New faces needed:<\/strong> Speaking of Freeland, Trudeau said after the election that she will continue as deputy PM and finance minister in his next cabinet, which seems, to the Globe\u2019s<\/em> Campbell Clark<\/strong>, a \u201csignal that the rest of the team doesn\u2019t matter as much.\u201d Clark thinks some changes are in order.<\/p>\n

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First and foremost, he needs a defence minister<\/strong> who actually thinks they are responsible for the conduct of the military, unlike Mr. Sajjan, who repeatedly sloughed off responsibility for the military\u2019s repeated mishandling of sexual harassment. Ms. Freeland said last week that the brass still don\u2019t get it, so Mr. Trudeau needs an experienced minister, preferably a woman, who will make them get it. Perhaps Ms. Anand. He also needs a pandemic health minister<\/strong> who can be the clear spokesperson and forceful negotiator with provinces that Ms. Hajdu hasn\u2019t been.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Going negative:<\/strong> The Star\u2019s<\/em> Althia Raj<\/strong> has a revealing long read<\/a> with insight into some of the behind-the-scenes calculations that took place during the recent election. For instance, in late August, rattled Liberals decided they had to go negative because they were on track to lose to Erin O\u2019Toole<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Dan Arnold,<\/strong> the Liberals\u2019 director of research, was concerned by the way support for O\u2019Toole was trending. \u201cIf you looked at his momentum and (Trudeau\u2019s) momentum \u2026 it certainly was not looking like it was heading into a good outcome,\u201d he told the Star. \u201cI was pretty candid to people \u2026 that the way the trajectory was going, we were going to lose<\/strong> the campaign.\u201d Arnold started the meeting with that overview. But he wasn\u2019t the only voice to raise concerns. The campaign team was getting missives \u2014 some solicited advice, others panicked and unsolicited \u2014 urging it to go negative to change the tide.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Tofino fallout:<\/strong> Trudeau\u2019s decision to travel<\/a> to makes him look \u201cdisconnected\u201d and \u201ctone deaf,\u201d political analysts tell the Hill Times<\/em>, but most of them think he will outlast this controversy like others before it because of his durable brand, reports<\/a>\u00a0Abbas Ranna<\/strong> in the Hill Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Needs advice:<\/strong> Speaking of Tofino, in the\u00a0Hill Times<\/em>\u00a0Rose LeMay<\/strong>\u00a0has a thoughtful column<\/a>\u00a0suggesting that the prime minister should get advice from an Indigenous Elders\u2019 Circle.<\/p>\n

Enough Huawei:<\/strong> More than 75 per cent of Canadians think Ottawa should ban Huawei Technologies from this country\u2019s 5G telecommunications, the Globe reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Opposition to Huawei\u2019s presence in 5G has increased to 76 per cent<\/strong> of respondents from 53 per cent in a 2019 poll. Huawei\u2019s 5G technology<\/a> has been banned in other countries over fears that the Chinese Communist Party could use it for spying purposes. In the latest results, only 10 per cent of respondents say Huawei should be allowed to supply gear for 5G, down from 22 per cent in the 2019 poll.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Somewhat tougher:<\/strong> The Trudeau government appears to be subtly changing its tone on China, Mike Blanchfield<\/strong> writes<\/a> for the Canadian Press.<\/p>\n

Analysts saw hints of a potentially tougher approach in what appeared to be a throwaway line in a congratulatory note that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent to his new Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, this past week. Trudeau twice used the label \u201cIndo-Pacific\u201d to stress the importance of co-operating with Japan on shared regional interests.\u00a0For some observers, that was a signal that Canada was moving toward a tougher posture<\/strong> toward future relations with China.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Blanchfield is the co-author of a new book<\/a> about the ordeal of the two Michaels.<\/div>\n

Legault dominates:<\/strong> In Maclean\u2019s<\/em>, Philippe J. Fournier<\/strong> has a look at a new Leger poll that finds Fran\u00e7ois\u00a0Legault<\/strong> with \u201c47 per cent of voting intentions in Quebec, a monstrous 27-point lead over its closest rival, the Quebec Liberal Party.\u201d Legault is so popular that even supporters of other parties want him to be premier.<\/p>\n

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Bad news for the Liberal Party: when asked which party leader would make the best premier, only 45 per cent of Liberal voters pick QLP leader Dominique Anglade<\/strong>. Even worse news for PQ leader Paul St-Pierre-Plamondon<\/strong>: only 25 per cent of PQ voters believe that he is the best candidate for premier. In fact, PQ voters even prefer Fran\u00e7ois Legault (38 per cent) to the current PQ leader (25 per cent). I am scouring my memory and cannot recall a recent occasion when voters of a major party in Quebec preferred the leader of another party to their own. In fact, Paul St-Pierre-Plamondon (3 per cent) is even behind neophyte \u00c9ric Duhaime<\/strong> (6 per cent) in this survey.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Pondering Legault:<\/strong> In the Star<\/em>, Chantal Hebert<\/strong> takes the measure of Legault\u2019s dominance and points out that many Quebecers are starting to wonder what he plans to do with all his political capital.<\/p>\n

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It is not uncommon these days to hear speculation that the only person who could lead Quebec back to the independence battlefield would be Legault himself. There are those who fear or hope that engineering such a return is the grand scheme behind his fighting words directed at Trudeau and his ruling federal party. No one can claim to read the premier\u2019s mind.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Canadian Nobel:<\/strong>\u00a0Canadian economist David Card<\/strong> won the Nobel prize for economics Monday for pioneering research that showed increasing the minimum wage does not kill jobs and immigrants do not lower pay for native-born workers, CBC reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re Number 1!<\/strong> A new report by a Finnish telecom analyst shows that Canadians pay more for cellphone service than anyone else on the planet, the Post<\/em> reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Stephen Maher<\/strong>
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