Maria Zakharova accuses Japan of sabotaging relations with Russia in favor of the United States

The spokeswoman of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, declared on February 14 that the administration of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is taking actions that, in favor of the United States, destroy the positive relations between Tokyo and Moscow.

Commenting on the so-called ,,Day of the Northern Territories’’, which takes place in Japan annually on February 7, Zakharova noted the particular intensity of Russophobia that characterized it in this year.

According to the diplomat, Japanese officials ignore not only generally accepted international standards, but also their own moral norms in their desire to revise the post-war realities that underlie the modern world order.

,,I noticed that this time the baseless territorial claims on the Kuril Islands were accompanied by vicious attacks against Russia in connection with the situation in Ukraine’’, Zakharova said.

,,Northern Territories Day’’ is a commemoration in which Japan makes known its position towards the Kuril Islands. They have been under Russian administration since their 1945 invasion by the Soviet Union, near the end of World War II. Tokyo claims the four southernmost islands (Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai) as part of its territory, leading to the ongoing Kuril Islands dispute. The disputed islands are known to the Japanese as the country’s ,,Northern Territories’’.

Earlier, it was reported that Japan plans to strengthen the country’s ground self-defense forces with the help of ballistic missiles with a hypersonic glide drive, according to the military expert Vasili Dandîkin.

In response, the Russian Ministry of Defense will strengthen the military structure available on the Kuril Islands.