Long story short. The Soviets occupied the islands north of Japan. A peace treaty after World War II was never signed between the two powers because of these islands. Medvedev recently became the first Soviet/Russian leader to visit the Kurils. The Japanese are pissed.
Read more about it here.
3 comments:
I receive some russian channels on my satellite, russians are jumping up and down and wave flags all way around))
btw. check out this link with korean guy, just amazing! http://juche-songun.livejournal.com/
@Tarlan: With the rise in Russian power with all the oil/gas money, it was inevitable that Medvedev flex its muscle with its neighbors. I really feel Japan is like the slowly declining Ottoman Empire, the Sick Man of Asia.
When I was a kid in Japan, I would often walk by the Soviet embassy in Tokyo and see police barriers keeping out ultra right wing Japanese nationalist protestors who want the Kuril Islands back. Kind of like the Japanese version of Vladimir Zhirinovsky
Gorbatchov was very close to give this islands back to Japan. But now Russians government look for an idea, a national idea to keep the crowd's mind out of internal politic and redirect them to external, Kuril Islands is one opportunity.
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