Member of the Committee on International Affairs:
“Considering the dependence of Japan’s foreign policy on the United States, such assertiveness in the recent time from the Japanese side on the Kuril Islands is quite explicable and fully corresponds to the actions that are being taken by the United States with respect to Russia in the sea direction. Among them is the attempt, using Ukraine, to provoke a conflict in the Kerch Strait, effectively depriving us of the Sea of Azov, and the US aircraft carrier’s entry into the Black Sea. In turn, the pressure on Japan to tighten the requirements for the transfer of the Kuril Islands to Russia is in fact tantamount to a demand to deprive us of the Pacific Fleet. Thus, the strategic task is solved to deprive Russia of the status of a sea power, cutting off its outlets to the World Ocean.
There can be no territorial concessions on the Kuril Islands from Russia. Moreover, in the Japanese press, in the event of the transfer of two islands of Japan, they speak only about the “first phase” of resolving territorial disputes with Russia, and the Japanese Parliament adopted an amendment to the legislation and set the task “to exert maximum efforts to realize the earliest return of the northern territories as territories Japan. Nor can one believe the promises that Japan will not allow the deployment of American military bases on the islands. But who will ask her? The commander of the US Armed Forces in Japan, Lieutenant General Jerry Martinez, saying that they do not intend to deploy troops on the islands of the southern part of the Kuril Islands if they are transferred to Japan, he immediately added: “At this stage, the US has no plans to deploy there troops”. At this stage! And the next?
The only possible solution to the Kuril problem is wide opportunities for Japanese business and the sharing of the economic potential of the islands, a preference for Japanese investors. But apparently, the Japanese side, or rather the United States, does not suit this option, since they solve not the economic, but the geostrategic task of changing the balance of forces in the Far East. ”