Staunton, Aug. 18 – Immediately after the Seventh Forum of the Free Peoples of PostRussia took place in Tokyo, the Russian foreign ministry handed over a note to Japanese diplomats denouncing the willingness of the Japanese to hold such a meeting (tass.ru/politika/18461717).
But as often happens, that Russian effort backfired because it opened the way for Japanese political figures to take an even harder line regarding their right to have such meetings on their territory and to denounce what Moscow is doing in Ukraine as part of a much larger Russian imperial project.
Yosuke Suzuki, a member of the Japanese Diet from the Constitutional Democratic Party, dismissed Russian complaints and said that Japan will work to “protect the interests of the indigenous peoples of the Russian Federation because part of Japan is also under Russian occupation” (idel-ural.org/archives/yaponiya-budet-zashhishhat-interesy-korennyh-narodov-rf-potomu-chto-chast-yaponii-tozhe-okkupirovana-rfiej/).
The parliamentarian took the opportunity to point out that “the Kurile Islands remain under occupation and that therefore the war against Ukraine and other countries is not some kind of temporary political crisis but the consistent imperial policy of the Kremlin that is directed in every direction and not only toward post-Soviet countries.”
What that clearly means, Suzuki continued, is that any thought of appeasing Russia by allowing Moscow to do what it pleases on the post-Soviet state will not “pacify her appetites.” Instead, it will mean that Moscow will simply become more aggressive and expansionist elsewhere.
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