Former general Hillier says Russia may take 'encouragement' from decision to return sanctioned turbines

Canada's former chief of the defence staff (CDS) Rick Hillier said Tuesday that Canada should not have agreed to return six turbines to Germany needed to keep Russian natural gas flowing into Europe — a view his American colleagues Wesley Clark and David Petraeus do not share.

Hillier, a retired general who was CDS from 2005 to 2008, said Russian President Vladimir Putin may see the decision as a "sign of encouragement" and a signal that Western sanctions in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine will weaken going forward.

"This decision to send the turbines back would be seen in hindsight ... as the straw that broke the camel's back, and we may start to see a relenting of pressure from NATO, from the West in general," he said.

Russia says the turbines are needed to increase natural gas output on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to northeastern Germany. They were in Montreal for repairs but the Canadian government has announced a temporary and revocable suspension of sanctions on Russia so that they can be sent back to Europe.

Federal government ministers have defended the decision, saying it was necessary to meet Germany's energy needs. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has slammed the government over the move, warning Putin would see it as a sign of weakness.

Hillier said that after Russia invaded and annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, NATO allies failed to sustain sanctions pressure on Russia. He said he fears something similar will happen to the sanctions arrayed against Russia now.

"I worry that the turbine might be the decision that starts that occurring now," Hillier said.

Hillier made the comments at a news conference to discuss his new role as chair of the Strategic Advisory Council to the Ukrainian World Congress.

The council also includes two high-profile former U.S. generals — Clark, a former supreme allied NATO commander in Europe, and Petraeus, who commanded American forces in Afghanistan and was briefly the director of the CIA. The council will advise the international Ukrainian advocacy organization on procurement and delivery of military kit to the Ukrainian military.

Hillier said his position on the Canadian government's turbine decision is "a slight bit more harsh" than those Clark and Petraeus expressed at the event.

Clark said the decision to return the turbines was an example of how sanctions on Russia need to be flexible.

"You have to have resilience, you have to bend but not break," Clark said. "It does require the art of diplomacy and compromise."

But Clark criticized the German government's decision to "cozy up" to Russia in the years preceding the war in Ukraine by buying Russian natural gas.

He added the debate over the turbine decision has distracted governments' attention away from what he says is a more important matter — the war on the ground in Ukraine.