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“Kuril Islands are important Russian region”
Published: 29 September, 2010, 13:16
Edited: 04 October, 2010, 12:23
President Dmitry Medvedev will visit the Kuril Islands in the near future despite Japan’s warnings that the trip may negatively affect relations.
Hanging on to Kuril islands should be the last of Russia's worries. There are a billion Chinese, tens of millions of Koreans and almost a billion Indians coveting Siberia as their "lebensraum".
Thats exactly right kihnu. They'll try what hitler tried.
Actually Manchuria , Outer Mongolia and Xinjiang are ALL PART OF RUSSIA , and so is Hokkaido.. Russia must suspend Japanese imports if the urotsukidoji's still want to quarrel over a few pieces of rock - The reason why Japan is so desperate about these so called Norther Territories is their fishing grounds - abundant in cold water species. Let the Japs focus on reducing their population density first, instead of fighting over microscopic pieces of land that are unsuitable for agriculture.. In fact the Japanese have created a great genocide in Hokkaido, Sakhalin and kuriles in the past by destroying the local Ainu population, while the japs breed like fleas... Viva Russia..
Japan can say what it wants, yes we are interested in good relations and and negotiations in good faith. However, for now, we should be ignoring Japan a little more, and do what we want with our Kuril Islands. In fact it is counterprodcutive to be doing anything else. We should indeed be hardening our stance rather than creating a grey zone. We should basically say that all discussions are off the table about the Kuril Islands, but that of course Japan are free to submit ideas, but these must be concrete so that they can be assessed and decided upon quickly. This issue has dragged on for far too long, it is time for decisive definite action and positions. Our position should be to end the debate and say there are no negotiations, unless an offer arrives which is well thought out, concrete and has the authority on the Japanese side to be a full and final settlement. We should even put a window on it of say 3 years, after which, no further negotiations will be entertained and the situation will become final.