Russian State Duma chairman urges Japan to "remember its history"

Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said on August 26 that Japan should remember its history and build relations with Russia on the principles of friendship and reciprocity.

“The Kurils are an integral part of the Russian Federation,” Volodin said, according to Russian media.

He also criticised Japan’s leadership for what he described as a return to rhetoric associated with the country’s militarist past.

“Let them remember the time when militarist Japan killed millions of civilians. Now they are trying to return to the same rhetoric. They should not,” Volodin said.

Volodin said Russia, as a nuclear power, could not be defeated and warned that confrontation would only increase tensions.

“It would be better to build [relations] on the principles of friendship and reciprocity, not interfere in the affairs of sovereign states and, of course, pursue mutually beneficial cooperation,” he said.

The comments come after Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Iturup, one of the Kuril Islands, on August 13. Japan’s Foreign Ministry lodged a “strong protest” with Russia over the visit, saying the so-called Northern Territories were “inherently Japanese territory from historical and legal perspectives”.

By Aghakazim Guliyev