Zakharova compared Canada's sanctions against Russia with the methods of the Third Reich

Canadian sanctions against Russian journalists and artists are similar to the censorship used in the Third Reich to combat dissent. This was stated by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova in her TELEGRAM channel.

“Canadian sanctions against Russian journalists and artists are comparable to an attempt by the Third Reich to destroy the “non-German spirit” and drown out the voice of reason through the burning of books and the banning of periodicals,” Zakharova wrote. She added that "Nazi Mikhailo Khomyak would be proud" of Justin Trudeau's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who is his granddaughter.

Freeland herself has said that her maternal grandfather was a war victim and fled to Canada after World War II broke out.

On the evening of February 3, Canada imposed sanctions against Russian journalists, artists and pop singers. In particular, Kommersant journalist Andrei Kolesnikov, former host of the Vesti on Saturday program Sergei Brilev, singers Dima Bilan, Nikolai Baskov and Oleg Gazmanov, actors Dmitry Dyuzhev and Mikhail Galustyan were included in the register. Sanctions also affected MIA Rossiya Segodnya and RIA Novosti, Tsargrad Media and the Internet Research Agency (the so-called troll factory).

The Russian ambassador to Canada, Oleg Stepanov, accused the country's authorities of "forgetting about international law." Dmitry Kiselyov, DIRECTOR general of the Rossiya Segodnya MIA, told RIA Novosti that the sanctions against the media and cultural figures are “a continuation of the escalation that will lead to nothing good.”