Canada screws up Russian geography while mocking Russians about geography

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper looks over a map with the Chief of Defence Staff General Thomas Lawson before announcing Canada will send six CF-18 fighter jets to the eastern Europe as part of a NATO mission during a press conference in Ottawa on Thursday, April 17, 2014. Photo: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

A sarcastic tweet from Canada’s delegation to NATO instructing Russians to be mindful of their national borders was apparently itself wrong about the geography of Eastern Europe.

Following the claim by Russian President Vladimir Putin this week that 10 Russian soldiers captured in Ukraine accidentally wandered into the neighbouring country, the Canada at NATO account tweeted out a cartoonish map labelling the two countries “Russia” and “Not Russia.”

“Geography can be tough,” read the tweet. “Here’s a guide for Russian soldiers who keep getting lost & ‘accidentally’ entering #Ukraine.”

Notable for its undiplomatic tone, the tweet garnered coverage from a number of major outlets including the BBC and The Telegraph newspaper.

But apparently the map omitted some key geographical information.

The Moscow Times, an English-language daily, pointed out Thursday that this “map fail” excluded not only Crimea — which Russia controversially annexed from Ukraine in March — but also Kaliningrad, an exclave* north of Poland and west of Lithuania that has been part of Russia since the end of the Second World War when it was captured from Germany.

Although the territory’s military significance has declined since the end of the Cold War, Kaliningrad still houses the Russian Baltic Fleet at the port of Baltiysk and is very much part of the Russian Federation.

Foreign Minister John Baird approvingly retweeted the image Thursday and praised the efforts of Canada’s NATO representatives for their “digital diplomacy.” He was either unaware of or unconcerned with the lack of red in Kaliningrad on the map.

Canada has been among the loudest Western countries in challenging Russia over its actions in Ukraine, especially on social media, where government accounts have routinely decried Russian “aggression” and “attempts to destabilize Ukraine.” The @CanadaNATO account even commemorated the 75th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact on Aug. 23, reminding Twitter users of the truce agreement between Nazi Germany and Stalin’s USSR that led to the countries dividing Eastern Europe between themselves.

The aggressive diplomatic tone from the Canadian government goes all the way to the top, with Prime Minister Stephen Harper raising the spectre of Russian aggression in the Arctic earlier this week.

“In Europe, we see the imperial ambitions of Vladimir Putin, who seems determined that, for Russia’s neighbours, there shall be no peace…,” Harper told Canadian soldiers Tuesday as part of his annual trip to the North. “And because Russia is also Canada’s neighbour, we must not be complacent here at home.”

Canada is also sending as many as 1,000 troops to Eastern Europe to bolster NATO efforts to counteract Russian activities seen to be threatening its neighbours, and the federal government has levied a number of sanctions against Russian officials believed to have been involved in aiding Crimean separatists earlier this year.

UPDATE: Russia’s NATO delegation has struck back in this silly Twitter war with a map of its own.