By Ruslan Ostashko
Translated and subtitled by Scott Humor
Can a person simultaneously shout that the authorities of “this country” are selling out Russia, and advocate for giving away the Kuril Islands to Japan? A person can, if it’s a Russian-speaking, pro-Western liberal.
We have long been accustomed to the fact that the Ukrainian media writes all sorts of nonsense. However, when it comes to a “Kiev expert” it is one thing, but it’s quite different when such nonsense is being written by a citizen of Russia with an office in Moscow.
Here is, for example, a headline: “Kurils must be given to Japan,” published by the notorious Ukro opinion blog called “Columnist.”
The author of the publication is Mikhail Krutikhin, who calls himself a “partner of the consulting company RusEnergy.”
If someone does not understand what a “consulting company” is, it means that Mikhail helps capital flight from Russia to offshore. He writes: “in place of Putin, I would give the Japanese not two, but four Islands.”
His article, coupled with the title, sounds like a subject for the criminal code 208.1, which is called “public demand for actions aimed at violating the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation.”
Where is this person who ask for it? Restless IT-expert Ruslan Karmanov was not lazy and found the address.
“Agency address: 109012, Moscow, Ilinka street, 4, Gostiny Dvor, business center “Delovoy”, office 2102.”
Ay, dear FSB! Do you need clearance? Please go to Ilinka street, it is not so far from Lubyanka square.
But the coolest thing is not even that a crook laundering money made in Russia, sitting in a cozy office in the center of Moscow, scribbling on Ukro-media a scribble about a need to “give away the Kuril Islands.” The coolest thing that this is what Krutikhin and his likes accuse Putin in doing.
The moment the presidential press Secretary Peskov mentioned that the Soviet-Japanese Declaration of 1956 is being discussed, proverbial substance started flowing though the info-channels. And now, on the same day, on the same ukro-website, the great privatizator Igor Chubais, who, for some reasons considers himself a statesman advocating for the interests of Russia, writes: “About Putin and Japan’s Prime Minister talks in regard to the transfer of the Kuril Islands, no one explains to us even so it’s ab,out our land, country, earth… The president is responsible for the territorial integrity of the country, but no referendum, no open discussions about the transfer of the Kuril Islands to Japan in Russia. We don’t know what we are talking about in the near future – the transfer of territory or is it some kind of diplomatic game.”
The message is clear: behind the nation’s back Putin is conducting some secret negotiations. If the negotiations are secret, is means they are against Russia’s national interests. And, oh, horror! The two liberal positions merge: that the Kurils must be given away, and that Putin will sell out Russia.
At moments like this it becomes clear what Orwell meant when he described double-mindedness.
By the way, it was Boris Yeltsin, adored by the liberals, who tried to give the Kuril Islands to the Japanese in 1992. Only the intervention of Russia’s special services prevented this from taking place, by simply disrupting the already agreed upon visit of the head of the Russia-liquidation team to Tokyo.
Back then, they turned everything as if the Japanese themselves had disrupted the visit, because they did not guarantee 100% security for Yeltsin. Here’s what the Major General of Federal security service Boris Ratnikov said about the event:
“Somewhere around three o’clock in the morning at the Embassy an on-duty officer came running with a message from the TASS federal news agency about the postponement of the visit of the President. So, we saved the Kuril Islands for Russia and the President’s face. It turned out that the Japanese themselves were to blame about the visit was postponed. They refused to provide guarantee of safety. The Japanese authorities were shocked by the cancellation of the already prepared visit.”
In general, as tradition has it, thieves scream “thief” the loudest. That’s how it is with these Islands. Those who gave away everything in exchange for a “good life” for themselves now squeal that Putin is doing it behind their backs.
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Scott’s P.S.: Most people don’t know that Russia’s sovereignty over the Kuril Islands is a legal foundation for the UN decision to declare the Sea of Okhotsk to be an inner Russia’s sea. Otherwise, the sea would become an “international waters” with the US fleet sitting along the Russia’s coast of Kamchatka and Sakhalin.
Thanks to Scott for the translation and sub-titles.
Putin is negotiating the capture of Japan and its investment capital, taking away Japan from the U.S. as a knee-jerk vassal. He’s showing Abe the road into Eurasia and the vast market advantages for Japanese exports, as well as co-development of energy and participation in the valuable Northern (Arctic) passageway for transport.
The Kurils are the dangling bait. But first, there must be a Peace Treaty that ends the WWII war officially.
Why does that matter?
Otherwise, Japan is still a “hostile” and Russia will not entertain any agreement about the Kurils.
How will it end?
Peace Treaty and co-development of the Kurils which will remain Russian, but have plenty of Japanese signage on a few of those useless rocks.
Japan will want to be a major player in Eurasia. Entry is not going to be through North Korea or China. Thus, only a gateway via Russia is possible.
In general, your comment is on the right track…Japan is not well served being tied to the sinking USS Titanic…it is a heavily industrialized but relatively small island nation in East Asia that does not have enough natural resources and must live in the same neighborhood as a rising China…
However the Kurils are not some useless rocks…they are vital to Russian defense and security…and you see this by looking at a map…the Kurils are the outer boundary of the Sea of Okhotsk…a vital body of water for Russia and, with the exception of the northern coast of Hokkaido island, it is entirely surrounded by Russian territory…making it practically a Russian Lake [within a ‘stone’s’ throw from US territory]
This is also a sea where Russian ballistic missile subs can lurk in perfect safety and guarantee a second strike in the worst possible case of an incapacitating US nuclear first strike…all of this would change dramatically if Russia gave up the Kurils…so that island chain is actually incredibly strategic…
Now the fact is that Putin is not considering any such thing…we must look more closely into that 1956 Soviet-Japanese joint declaration…
This was a deal for Russia to give back two tiny islands which are basically nothing but rocks and are technically not part of the Kurils…being actually east of the chain itself…ie outside that ring that is important to Russian security…those two being Shikotan and Habomai…together about 300 square kilometers in total…ie tiny…
Here is the story about that…the USSR and Japan were both ready to finalize this deal, whereby Russia agreed to hand over those two…but only after a Peace Treaty was signed…also it did not specify that Japan had sovereignty over them…a couple of crucial points…
Now both parties were ok with that deal but it was the US that objected and put pressure on Japan to nix it…so now Putin is saying that that 1956 deal can be done…but as before, the peace treaty must come first…and then a lot of details will need to be worked out…such as the actual sovereignty over those islands…
Putin has verbally pointed out the fact that it was Japan that walked away from this deal in 1956…so that is a negotiating card the Russians have now…but Russia is willing to live up to that 1956 commitment…
This is not bad…it demonstrates again that Russia’s word means something…unlike the US which has by now established such a dreadful record of going back on its word that no country should possibly trust it again…
As for the bigger Islands that are part of the dispute…that includes the two big islands just north of Hokkaido…Kunashir and Iturup…these two have a combined area of nearly 5,000 square km…so that is a much different matter…there are actually towns and industry and even defense positions on these islands…so there can be no thoughts about giving these to Japan…which doesn’t actually have a solid claim to them anyway…[something that is up for debate in any case]
Also worth noting here is the aspect of Japanese investment etc in return…well this is quite a ridiculous way to look at these things…we are in the 21’st century and countries don’t sell territories like Russia did with Alaska, or France did with the Louisiana Purchase…
I think Japan’s attempts along this line are seen as insulting and irrelevant not just by Putin by by most Russians…Russia really does not need anybody’s help or ‘investment’ to complete its development and live up to its potential…what it really needs is to take control of its own central bank and clean out the traitorous elements that still have a lot of sway in the nation’s economic and political life…
But there are additional interesting points to this story…one is the idea for a tunnel linking Hokkaido to Sakhalin…in much the same way as the ‘Chunnel’ linking England to the European mainland…
This would greatly benefit Japan by linking it to the Eurasian continent…and all that that means for trade and transport…there is also the possibility of Russian gas supplies…so there are as many benefits to Tokyo as there are to Moscow of working together…
Glad you brought all your facts to the thread. Excellent presentation. Edifying commentary.
Great post FB, well done.
I’ve been living in Japan more than 30 years and have friends among both the right and left. I agree you’ve presented a lot of good information, some of which I didn’t even know.
There are people in Japan who will not be satisfied if Kunashir and Iturup are not returned, but with just a handful of people still alive in Japan who have any memory of living there a long time ago, and with long-established Russian communities on these islands that would be disrupted by a transfer, most people I know would be delighted to have the Habomai group and Shikotan returned. The press has been portraying Russia in a more favorable light recently, though we still tend to hear primarily the CIA’s point of view on events.
Japanese mass narrative ignores plenty that doesn’t serve it, really way too much is built on “Western Imperialists did it, so nobody can complain if we did”. Left/Right isn’t necessarily huge difference unfortunately, “Leftist” German SocDems voted for WWI, “Leftist” 1950 UK Labour maintained colonial and hegemonic policy e.g. Malaysia and Iran. Democracy for the few, Socialism for the few has long history, and you shoudn’t have serious expectations there from anybody not 100% anti-imperialist to the hilt regardless of their political style preference… “leftists” can still retain perspective of imperial body politic regardless surface stylings.
Kuril narrative is combination of selective ignorance and dragging in irrelevant issues. Like they consider it relevant that South Kurils were uncontested Japanese territory pre-war. But so was Kaliningrad (Konigsberg) German and never Russian, but nobody serious thinks that matters because Germany gave it up for losing the war they started. Japanese want to arbitrarily focus on narrow time frame following non-aggression agreement with Russia. But Japan had previously attacked mainland Soviet territory very recently, that USSR chose to pursue immediate neutrality pact as realistic policy after defeating that invasion given German war threat doesn’t negate that Japanese aggression. (Soviet-Japan neutrality was always planned as temporary, not a true ‘normal relations’ between states) Never mind Japanese invasion of USSR during Red/White Civil War in league with Western imperialists vs Communists. “Anglo-Americans did it” is hardly serious rationale, but that is really standard Japanese narrative because they are so deep in their wanna-be partnership with Atlantic Empire. You can see in comment here by Japanese person complaining of Russian “hostility” (which isn’t really existent, they just reject Japan’s BS claim to Kurils and ignorant Japanese construe that as hostility) they somehow think “Asian” vs “European” is relevant when discussing territorial issue because that is copied from their racist Western imperial template.
They love to pull two-faced crap like “but Imperial Japanese soldiers were just poor drafted peasants, not people who led Empire”. Russia never stopped Japanese peasant and proletariat from lynching entire ruling class for their crimes, so why expect excessive generous sympathy from Russia? Japanese are ones responsible for maintaining mythological unity with their exploiting criminal ruling class. Japanese 1-party state is pure continuity with Empire, Abe is literally blood descendant of old school ruling elite. Like US turned South Korea over to same Japanese collaborators to suppress sovereign people, or retained Nazi elite in Germany, Japanese elite cut a deal with US. They want to pull shit like “oh we can’t do anything about Yasukuni, we can’t just remove the war criminal remains” when those remains were transfered TO Yasukuni in 1979… Clearly an event mirroring the low-key rehabilitation of fascist elite post-US occupation.
Russia doesn’t strictly care about that particularly, they don’t demand political virtue. But fact is Japanese narrative is built on lies, not just 56 deal suppressed in service of US alliance (under threat of losing Okinawa) which is more commonly recognized now… albeit mostly under context of “OK well at least Russia is obligated to return those islands, and when/how they return the rest is just for negotiation”. 56 agreement was not about ‘legitimate return’ of those islands, the mutually understood context was that Japan had legitimately renounced them, and Shikotan/Habomai were thus “gifts” from USSR but as in West, propagandists happy to invoke legalisms in service of jingoist fables have no interest in actual legal nuances not their favor.
Japanese lies are fundamental in that there is and was never any actual “dispute” – Japanese government of time testified to own Diet that SF Treaty gave up sovereignty to South Kurils, this was by foreign ministry officials involved in treaty, PM, it’s all on the record. SF didn’t explicitly transfer them TO USSR, but they were given up, so no legit claim for Japan = no dispute. Now loony-tunes fascists can act like all post-war Japan government is illegitimate, but that applies to everything, every law, regulation, court decision, etc. So that’s not viable as consistent legal stance, it’s just “in my head, misplaced-ego nationalist fantasy” material, same people have similar claims re: Sakhalin and even Kamchatka, might as well treat seriously Russian reclaiming Alaska or Aleutians.
Now, almost 70 years after 56 deal, it should be understood as truly generous for Russia to consider 56 deal content as even valid basis. I do think it’s reasonable and realistic basis of deal, especially considering the perspective that US blackmail forced Japan to abandon it originally. There’s actually a map by Japanese professor showing how the total area of Shikotan & Habamai including EEZ waters by standard guidelines is ~50% of total for area in question (despite their land area being much smaller), and maritime harvest (fish, seaweed, etc) is really the major viable economic utility here, especially relevant for nearby Hokkaido fishing towns so that is major factor in considering “just Shikotan & Habomai” permanent viable deal which can be rationalized as “fair” on emotional level ignoring legalisms which all 100% favor Russia (which Japanese largely still avoid overtly considering, as well as not fully recognizing own 70-year long “big lie” narrative – again, Russia doesn’t care about political virtue of Japan and isn’t expecting Japan to actually overtly confront “big lie” but that doesn’t mean they will accept the lie themselves).
I don’t think it’s plausible to read original agreement as NOT transferring sovereignty of Shikotan/Habomai to Japan, albeit by same token it’s absurd to pretend agreement didn’t mean Japan recognition of Iturup/Kunashiri as 100% Soviet now Russian. But 70 years have also passed, Shikotan long inhabited by Russians since then, and it isn’t Soviet or Russian fault Japan didn’t sign agreement earlier… There is also real-politik issue of if Shikotan/Habomai become de jure Japanese territory, US-Japan military pact automatically applies there. Japan may say it doesn’t need/want that, but it can’t credibly impose a change to US treaties that is solely geared to benefiting a geopolitical “enemy” of US, and US is obviously not going to directly & formally support a limitation of it’s military presence vs Russia. So NOT de jure returning them is only plausible route to not trigger that issue which would conflict with actual peace between RU/JP.
Technically speaking, assuming broad intent for agreement “giving” Shikotan/Habomai to JP but without “de jure” JP sovereignty, that would look something like Svalbard with formal sovereignty retained by Russia, but it becomes “special economic zone” with co-management/access by JP/RU where JP citizens can freely live under “laissez faire” regime. Svalbard is actually “laissez faire” zone open to entire world, but in this case only JP/RU need be considered, and it can be demilitarized under Russian guarantee, with coast guard possibly a joint regulation based out of Shikotan itself. Of course many countries voluntarily create “special economic zones” entirely aside from territorial conflicts, so this isn’t something very far from the norm for most countries, and it easily avoids issue of US/JP/RU triangle creating problems which would break deal (as it did originally in 56, albeit it’s easy to see why JP made that choice given Okinawa had much more population), it allow JP citizens to freely live on Shikotan without even being under Russian civil law, so is plausibly “face saving” and workable solution for both sides.
I wouldn’t call Shikotan a rock. It’s 225 square kilometers, larger than Guam, and there are people living on it.
I’m not sure if its the original speaker or this site’s excellent and most appreciated translators.
In Orwell’s 1984, the term is not double-mindedness, but doublethink. It goes with the other famous phrase from the book which is the word doublespeak.
Orwell wrote …
“The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them… To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just as long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies—all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth.”
Thanks for the reminder that it been too long since I read Orwell.
Japan, just like most other Zio-colonies, is in very great need of acquiring some political self-respect and awareness. It was callously fire-bombed and nuked by the Pindos, and then there was the Fukushima disaster with the nuclear power plants constructed by General Electric. Add to this the constant child-rape and molesting going on down in Okinawa.
Most importantly, if Japan chooses to shut down for good a considerable amount of its own nuclear power, it had better make a sage choice as to with what to replace it. Striking energy deals with the Pindos means unending blackmail, price hikes, and continued occupation. If Russian energy is refused on the basis of ”Stalin-Stealing-Our-Northern-Territories” — well, good luck then.
These liberals are seeking to gain power post Putin and say anything to undermine him.
Put in needs to clean out these people – they are corrupt sobthe legal process should be turned on them.
They should not be their to collaborate with the west who are already plant for post – Putin Russia.
Russia’s threats are always internal not just external – Gorbachev and Yeltsin are examples of what can happen if the wrong people gain power
It’s strange how this many traitors managed to reach top offices in Russia(or rather the Soviet Union before).
Every time one of these liberals get investigated, the whole collective West screams foul about suppression of free speech , human rights blah blah, and demands their immediate release. The same happens internally in Russia – the liberal press shifts a gear and bangs on about abuses of power, bloody regime etc.
It is a nightmare what FSB has to deal with these days!
why do you as a russian adopt a bad orwellian american habit? There is absolutely nothing liberal (in the true sense of the word) about the “liberals”. Call them who they really are, leftists. Most if not all of them have sympathized with Marx at one time in their life. The last thing these people have in mind is liberty. The contrary is true. Let “liberals” rule long enough and everybody will be a slave!
Absolute bs. The terminology is correct. Liberalism was vehemently criticized by Karl Marx (https://themarxistminx.wordpress.com/2014/08/24/marxs-critique-of-liberalism/). Liberalism was never a left ideology. It has always been on the right, on the side of capital. Only the American media calls it left – to con the American people making them vote against themselves.
It’s been a while since last time I posted here.
First of all, I have no idea what “1992 event” means.
I’ve never heard of it.
Second, I think we have no reason to have Russians antagonism toward us.
This is really unbelievable.
Why so hostile?
Soviet was the very one who broke no war agreement with Imperial Japan.
Soviet soldiers are the very people who detained and tortured and raped Japanese civilians in northern Korean peninsula.
They were no trialed for it, and we are still feeling hurt, traumatized for it.
Numerous Japanese soldiers were brought to Siberia for forced labor work.
Detained years and years, many died there.
While most of those were just poor farmers who had no choice but to come to war in being drafted, not the ones making orders.
We have ever got no compensation nor apology for the inhumane Siberia forced labor work.
Russians have no reason to be so conceited to us.
We have no problem with Asian people for history recognition, because it was all confirmed by the 1972 diplomatic normalization with China.
What happened were all confirmed each other, between Zhou Enlai and Kakuei Tanaka, thus no contest against it.
I think we late generation Japanese have to be more sensitive with historical issues when with Asian neighbors, so not to hurt their feelings.
Because they are still hurt, feeling offended inside, when someone Japanese is less taking care of historical issues.
Like we are feeling offended with Americans justifying atomic bomb dropping.
I think we have to contribute to world peace more than anyone else, for the past war victims sake.
Meantime, with Russians, we have no idea.
We don’t know what is agreed, what is not agreed.
Northern territory dispute is less important, before the post war civilian torture by Soviet soldiers.
It’s a war crime.
And we haven’t been told nothing about it, never been convinced.
Hmm, I do not want to go and dig out some facts, but as the article points out to us 1992 is the time of Yeltsin.
Next, you are saying “Soviet broke the agreement …”: what agreement is that? Might I remind you that actually after 1905, there wasn’t really any conflict between the two countries until WWII, in which USofA duped Japan into attacking Pearl Harbor. Mind I also remind you: That it was Imperial Japan occupying south Asia including China in search for much needed material resources. Are your suggesting that “poor Japanese soldiers” were nice and polite to the populations of South Asia? Hmm, I think not as they were more than happy to use their catanas to dismember the locals and other war captives.
Back to Soviets. As far as I know, it was late August of 1945, when Soviets and USofA after the end of the war in Europe agreed that Russians will take on Japanese army in Manchuria, which they dispatched in about one week (1.5mln Japanese soldiers holed up under the heavy rocks). Two things happened then: USofA panicked and nuked Japan into submission, and Russia helped China free itself from “peace loving Japanese”.
I am not going to go into the business of raping Koreans (Japanese in your opinion, yest I do know that historically you are Koreans) by the Russians, because no war is without rape. Interestingly its always the Russians who are accused of doing the raping, such bad bunch, and the others are just angels.
I believe the gentleman from Japan is referring to is the Neutrality Pact between the Soviet Union and Japan agreed to in 1941.
At first, Stalin had to be concerned that Japan would join their ally Germany in war against the Soviet Union. Thus Stalin had to keep forces in the far east to counter this threat. This Neutrality Pact allowed Stalin to shift these forces to face Germany.
These forces form a key part of the battle for Moscow in December 1941. Stalin had carefully kept them back as reserves, so when Gen. Zhukov launched his counter-attack on the Germans in front of Moscow, the forces transferred back from Asia formed a key part of those forces.
A peace loving Japanese should know a bit more about causality. You pointed to the “crimes committed by the Soviet Union” against Japanese soldiers but forgot to mention the crimes Japan committed in Korea, China…Japan was the aggressor and in the end got what all aggressors get in similar situations. Japan started the war against its neighbors and the horrific crimes it committed are well-known. Don’t go blaming the Soviet Union or China for responding to those crimes. You should blame your leaders for that adventure that did not produce the results Imperial Japan wanted. No one else is to blame but Japan. Remember, the crimes you mentioned were not committed inside Japan, they were, if they in fact happened, committed in land Japan had invaded. And invaders usually get what they deserve.
That gives cause for Koreans and Chinese to be hostile, what’s Russia’s/Soviet Union’s reason?
Japanese people has an disturbing lack of history knowledge.
I think they do not know what you are all talking about.
Yesterday I saw a youtube video quite interesting.
A guy showing a Nazi Swastika to random Japanese people on the street and asking them what do they think it represents.
Not a single one knew it represented nazi ideology. No one!
About the islands, I really think Russian people don’t give a darn about it.
The problem is….defense. and in the big picture Japan has nothing to do with it nowadays.
So Russia is not giving the Islands because someone else.
Considering what was said by FB here in comments I do agreed with Russia and Putin initiative on this regards.
It is interesting that the Japanese are that uninformed about the Nazis, and I was shocked to notice something like that once early on after coming to Japan. The swastika is used on maps to indicate Buddhist temples, so that is how the Japanese primarily see it, tending to forget that it was also a symbol of Nazi terror. (Recently one friend in the throes of late-stage Alzheimers gushed to me about what a great guy Hitler was, but his most recent memory at that point was from the late 1930s.)
The Nazi terror is probably touched on lightly if mentioned at all in their state-controlled education, which has been scandal-ridden in a number of ways. It really is an island nation. Even more than that, they tend to be clique-oriented, spending enormous energy conforming to group expectations. Most of my friends here have no interest whatsoever in international events and are even critical of me–an American–for going abroad now and then.
A few quite liberal ones have gone out of their way to learn about their country’s history of overseas relations, and they fear that without education, Japan will lapse right back into aggressive behavior, as it has done repeatedly in search of resources. Most of the young people I see, however, lack any interest whatsoever in anything outside the cyberworld, though if you press them, they admit to being very concerned that they might never make a living for themselves in an economy that is gradually narrowing. Regarding their dreams, the boys say they want to win the lottery; the girls say they want to marry.
But regarding our dear “Peace Loving Japanese,” it is quite rare to see such an honest display of the naivety that is typical in some (but not all) quarters of Japan, combined with such a victim mentality on an international forum like this. I hope he will be encouraged to stick around.
Dear Peace loving Japanese, I want to say something to you. In peace. Peace be upon all of us, to paraphrase a Muslim saying, though I’m not a Muslim. B
There has been happening a lot of things in Asia around WW2. A lot more than raping women and put people to slave labour. Just hit your search engine to what happened to the people in Nanjing, China, and that was in the thirties before WW2.
People don’t forget there. To get it even worse, hit your search engine to unit 731. The responsible people have never been prosecuted and have been cherished in nice careers in industry and politics afterwards. Uncle Sam likes war results more than justice, isn’t it? Forget moral, find success in any way at any cost more, isn’t it? Can you understand that this might give… some irritation afterwards?
Ok, let’s get somewhere. My family has been detained by the Japanese army in WW2 in concentration camps. I only know a percentage of it, even after hard asking, because I wanted to know what has happened.
Still they don’t hate Japanese. They want to go on.
A couple of years ago I was in China on a business trip, linked to a German company. I’m from W-Europe. I talked to Chinese colleagues. We touched this subject. They absolutely did not forget. I told them that bad things may have happened, we should not forget, but we should keep in mind that old people die and new are born, and we should try to find new ways to get along with each other. Well, something like that.
I think you missed a few points, but let’s forgive that. Just search further, you’ll find out more.
If you are on the track to find peace, you will have me backing you.
平和があなたにあるかもしれない
Cheers, Rob
Should Russia return the Kuril Islands back to Japan?
Yes – If:
Poland would return East Prussia back to Germany.
I suspect this Kuril island thing, with this timing, is more about creating diplomatic difficulties for the Russian Federation and poisoning good relations between Russia and Japan, than anything else.
Oligarchies are created to bring about just such a bifurcation. It is unsurprising. The fate of the Kurils is a matter for Russia of course; though opinion is permissible: My own view is that Russia would be well advised to keep firm hold of the kurils for the forseeable future for a number of strikingly (pardon the pun) obvious Geopolitical reasons.
The excellent Yoichi Shimatsu writes:-
https://rense.com/general96/next-up-aum-subway-cult-boss-shinzo-abe.html
Which article informs on the nature of those involved in the Kuril negotiations. This is far more complicated than is apparent, with hidden agendas galore.
Dear Harry,
Do you have any idea who and what Yoichi Shimatsu is?
Shimatsu first came to notice in his article on Fukushima which was later followed by Jim Stone, and was quite erroneous. Shimatsu has also written articles on MH370 which again ally with Jim Stone, and finally in one previous article written by Shimatsu he names the Aum Shinrikyo as a Japanese Intelligence Unit, and once people are aware that it was this Japanese unit that participated in Electro Magnetic Scalar weapons testing from 1989-96 in outback Western Australia prior to the Japanese USA Bankers war of 1995 that the Aum Shinrikyo were ostracized.
. So why has Shimatsu done a double-flip in now calling the Aum Shinrikyo a terrorist group? Is he now following the writings of Tim Bearden in suggesting:
“However, extensive weather engineering and control has been very active all over the U.S. for some time. ~ This weather engineering activity is probably still due to the rogue Japanese team (Yakuza and Aum Shinrikyo) that leased (from the KGB) scalar EM interferometry weapons on site in Russia, in latter 1989. Since early 1990, that rogue team on site in Russia has been directly engineering the weather over North America.”
And finally, why would Yoichi Shimatsu introduce his article on the Fukushima incident with the words from the American song, “Sixteen Tons’?
The Japanese ethnic-cleansed these islands of their original no-Japanese inhabitants not so very long ago. The idea that they are “Japanese” going back centuries is total rubbish.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ainu_people
Please don’t forget that the Wikipedia presents a white-washed version of what really happened on these Islands when the Japanese invaded them. Wikipdia, like Google and Facebook is controlled by the usual AngloZionists
Anyway, Japan lost the war. Their 1st Army in China/Korea was destroyed by the Soviet forces – no mention in the history books. The Soviet army was going to invade mainland Japan after capturing these islands.
The reason the Americans dropped atomic bombs on Japan was because they wanted to keep Japan for themselves. The bombs were a warning to Stalin. The Japanese had no petrol and no one can wage war without fuel. They were finished. There was no other reason to drop these bombs.
I’ve seen the case made that the bombs were dropped for the purpose of comparing the results of two types of atomic bomb, uranium and plutonium, in their effects on actual human populations, and they didn’t want to miss the opportunity. It was all very clinical.
These Liberals may have a point . Putin should not be sending any signals of trading Kurills, it is seen by Anglos as a sign of weakness. In its dealings with Turkey and Japan and Saudi, Russia is too forgetfull of what these nations have done and intend to do. It is ok to be mulitpolar but seeing the displays of neo imperialist Shinzo Abe Japan and New Sultan Erdogan should be enough to warn against too close relations.
If Russia loses Kurill, by Martime Law the Sea of Ohotsk is Japanese water. Kurills just gives Japan and its nato masters a closer bases to russia. Remember Maritime Law was written by and for the benefit of British Empire and taken over now by USA. England uses these laws in Gibraltar and Falklands. USA sends ships past Chinese terrortory to provoke a incident. USA navy has permanent fleet of destroyer ships and air carriers in Mediteranean Sea. Ukraine tries to provoke Russia at sea. Anglo Saxons are sea people and are obsessed with all relating to it, trade, navy, fishing etc. Neither USA or England has won a land war against a major power. This sea domination is how they maintain power. The pirate mentality. As English Pirate Drake said ‘all the seas are but an English lake’.
in the former army they taught us that any foreign army in our country that has the real ammunition in the armament is an occupation army. Japan has been under American occupation since the WWII. of course it is called differently today. to expect from Russia to offer to the US military strategic or any of the islands is ruthless stupid and unrealistic.
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about rape, after the WWII, a lady I forgot the name issued a book a few years ago with documented (!) ~ 186,000 cases of rape of German women by allied troops in western Germany.
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Liberals can be very useful because in the case of war and the exchange of prisoners can be changed for soldiers.
Scott’s P.S.: Most people don’t know that Russia’s sovereignty over the Kuril Islands is a legal foundation for the UN decision to declare the Sea of Okhotsk to be an inner Russia’s sea. Otherwise, the sea would become an “international waters” with the US fleet sitting along the Russia’s coast of Kamchatka and Sakhalin.
http://www.un.org/depts/los/clcs_new/submissions_files/rus01_rev13/2014_03_13_COM_REC_RUS_Summary.pdf
Not that this substantially alters the bigger story around South Kuril “dispute”, but the above claim about UNCLOS ruling is not true, and misconstrues the basic concepts the ruling is dealing with. First, the ruling doesn’t declare any disputed part of sea as Russian “inner sea” or territorial waters, it declares the “donut hole” center of Okhotsk sea as part of continental shelf extension of Russian EEZ, which is still technically international waters albeit with regulation of fishing, oil, etc. Secondly, it doesn’t hinge on Russian sovereignty over South Kurils at all, the ruling is based solely on Sakhalin and North Kuril coastlines and continental shelf of undisputed Russian territory, as is clear from the linked PDF itself. Thirdly, territorial water status would not deter US Navy submarines from entering Okhtosk, and Russian military concerns have more accurately been focused on ability of US to operate sonar detection nets across straits and/or more easily deploy sea/air ASW assets from nearby bases. Fourthly, that Japan has coastline and EEZ on southern edge of Okhtosk (off-shore Hokkaido island) independent of Kuril claims was never disputed by Russia, so Okhotsk has never been “entirely Russian lake” irregardless “donut hole” and Russian jurisdiction over Okhtosk-Pacific transit via Kurils.
That said, I do think in the bigger picture it is not unplausible to believe EEZ will be recognized as conferring higher sovereign control on transit, especially of military vessels. Irregardless formalities, EEZ itself and 12nm territorial limit are result of creeping growth in claimed control (vast majority of which has been unilateral, US not even basing it’s EEZ on UNCLOS ratification), so deepening of recognized EEZ sovereignty is more than plausible. UNCLOS rulings are already being made assuming high degree of EEZ sovereign power, e.g. Nicaragua/Colombia case granted bizarre “sea corridor” to Colombia on premise of ensuring access to islands (otherwise surrounded by waters granted to Nicaragua) which is incoherent if assuming EEZ will never inhibit transit. Not that a specific degree of sovereign control of transit was specified, but that is clearly inescapable inference from their ruling.
Somewhat ironically, the Okhotsk “donut hole” ruling has directly provided the basis for Japan’s own “sea-grab” of large area of Pacific, with precedent that ownership of surrounding waters confers EEZ jurisdiction of “donut hole” in center. I believe that also hinges on Japanese “island building” (Okinotorishima) which by sheer coincidence :-) is never mentioned when Atlantic Empire media rants on about Chinese “island building” in SCS. (never mentioning US usage of Taiwan-controlled SCS island for radar station in 60s(?), Taiwan/PRC claims overtly sharing same fundamental basis)
SCS hype is really horrible, just treatment of “7 dash line” is melodrama, that a dotted line indicates rough border while conceding validity of negotiating exact GPS-accurate borders is obvious yet ignored in favor of “dotted… evil!” Forced Philippines UNCLOS tribunal (culminating a subversion and erasure of cooperative approach previously pursued by PRC-PH) ignoring the consistent importance of consensuality in arbitration was just a Hollywood shit-show, legal experts in fact aware the judgement was NOT binding in way consensual arbitration is, but simply a “public diplomacy” fuck you to PRC. It’s legal reasoning was further degraded imperial song and dance, namely ignoring that UNCLOS treaty explicitly recognized validity of “previous legal-cultural norms of sea usage and jurisdiction” which they hand-waived by saying China did not have evidence of “exclusive” sovereignty… Except practically by definition “previous [indigenous] legal-cultural norms” are not going to conform to Western Imperial “liberal” legal norms of exclusive control etc (otherwise why would they need distinct treatment?), so rejecting it outright on that basis means gutting that clause of any power. China of course in fact having actual archaeological remains of Taoist temples on some of these islands (not all of course, get real) and documented history of naval dominance, certainly something to take serious account of, yet it was just ignored. And (Atlantic-prodded) Philippines stance based not on any evidence but simply on denying China’s claim and applying “standard” EEZ without proving any Philippines exclusive sovereign history.
I mean, I hardly think PRC are saints bringing holy light to world (which is irrelevant to potential for multipolar world dynamic), but their legal boundary disputes I really think are largely very much in their favor in the whole (their war vs Vietnam and related backing of Pol Pot is really their worst external policy but that was with de facto US backing of course). SCS / 7-dash “tongue” is mostly about existence of that “tongue” which enables safe-zone for their subs/ death-zone for US subs similar to Okhotsk, and exact distance from Viet/Malay/Phillipines mainland shores is not critical, so I don’t expect them to insist on pushing EEZ as far back as “standard”, that is the point of vague dotted-line after all. Oil/gas I can’t see how absolute 100% of all possibe maximal claims is key issue above naval defense, in fact before US provocation of PH their plan was joint exploitation with neighboring countries, that in fact being most profitable (closest pipeline to land etc). I think part of far western border with Indian Kashmir is not historically substantiated, but given they’ve already generously conceded middle and eastern sections of Indian border claims which had good amount of objective facts in their favor (like imperial chinese border stone well on indian side of indian claim line) I consider that a reasonable negotiated swap (in event of Indian Big Lie is dropped etc). The Diaoyu/Senkaku dispute with Japan (which isn’t even primarily about those rocks, but greater EEZ issues, with oil/gas fields on Chinese side of sea trench) probably needs a Svalbard style solution, which ultimately hinges on desire to achieve cooperative outcome.
…Incidentally, Svalbard related EEZ dispute was old semi-major Atlantic Empire talking point re: RussiaThreat, but once Russia/Norway 100% resolved that… RussiaThreat propaganda didn’t reduce, not even in Norway itself which is most bizarre (assuming primacy of nominal nation-state, ignoring Mahanian international elite networks).