Russian envoy in Japan says bilateral ties have fallen into “ice age”

Russia’s ambassador to Japan, Nikolay Nozdrev, has stated that Tokyo’s recent policies have destroyed the positive foundation of Russian-Japanese relations, effectively reducing them to what he described as an “ice age.”

In an interview with RIA Novosti, Nozdrev said that the two countries are now experiencing “an unprecedented post-war decline” in bilateral ties.

According to the diplomat, the accumulated positive potential built over decades has been “almost destroyed” after Japan joined what he called the “anti-Russian line of the West” in the context of the conflict in Ukraine.

Nozdrev also outlined conditions for possible improvement in relations, including a shift in Tokyo’s current political course, an end to what he described as “revisionist policies,” and a halt to remilitarisation efforts.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov