This is due to the growing tension between Russia and Japan, especially with Moscow conducting military exercises in the Kuril Islands, which have been disputed between the two countries since the end of World War II, after Russia suspended peace talks with Japan due to the sanctions imposed by Tokyo after the start of the war in Ukraine.
On Friday, the Russian Defense Ministry revealed that more than 1,000 soldiers from the Eastern Military District are currently conducting exercises on the Kuril Islands by firing artillery shells and anti-tank missile systems.
“More than a thousand soldiers of the air defense forces and about 200 units of military equipment participated in the combat exercises on the Kuril Islands,” the ministry said in a statement.
She added: “During the maneuvers, the Russian forces are conducting combat training in the conditions of the use of electronic warfare means, the (enemy) use of weapons of mass destruction, as well as repelling an attack by drones.”
According to observers, the remarkable and disturbing aspect of these Russian maneuvers in the disputed Kuril Islands with Japan is the indication in the Russian defense statement that they include combat simulations to confront the conditions for the use of weapons of mass destruction by the enemy, considering this as a sign that Russia is guarding against the occurrence of the worst and most severe scenarios disastrous.
In order to take note of the implications of what is happening in the Kuril Islands, and its repercussions on the raging Russian-Japanese dispute over the impact of the Ukrainian crisis, Muhannad Al-Azzawi, head of the Saqr Center for Studies, said in an interview with “Sky News Arabia”: “Although the sanctions imposed by Japan on Russia, no It constitutes only about 10 percent of the volume of sanctions imposed on it by Western countries against the backdrop of its war in Ukraine, but Moscow considers this a hostile position from Tokyo that Russia does not accept, as a major country paralleling the United States of America as a global pole.
Al-Azzawi explained that “these successive military maneuvers are part of a display of Russian muscle and power in its traditional vital field.”
And the strategic military expert continued: “North Korea has entered the Russian-Atlantic front line, strategically positioned with Moscow, and China may also join it, despite its adoption so far, the policy of balancing its position on the Ukrainian crisis, and thus the features of a Eurasian strategic alliance between Moscow, Beijing and Pyongyang are drawn, and these maneuvers It is a strategic simulation that indicates that the Russians and their allies in China and North Korea, are able to deter any attempt to crowd out their vital field and back gardens in East and South Asia and throughout the Pacific and Indian Oceans, especially by Washington through its Asian allies, Japan and South Korea.
For her part, a researcher in international relations, Lana Badfan, said in an interview with “Sky News Arabia”: “Relations have always been tense between Japan and Russia, but during the era of Russian President Vladimir Putin, these relations have witnessed a relatively remarkable development, but Japan’s accession to the policy of The imposition of sanctions on Russia in the wake of the Ukrainian crisis caused a serious deterioration in relations, to the extent that Moscow halted peace talks with Tokyo a few days ago.
The researcher in international relations pointed out that: “The Russian message from these military exercises, a stone’s throw from Japan, is that Moscow is able to move in its various vital strategic spaces extending from Eastern Europe to East Asia, and that it is keen to protect its areas of influence in the face of Atlantic threats, And prove its superiority and its deterrent and offensive capabilities together, which will not be matched by similar Japanese military parades, given the wide gap between the military capabilities of both countries, but Tokyo will most likely respond politically and economically by tightening its financial and trade sanctions.
It is worth noting that the dispute over the Kuril Islands, which extends since the end of World War II, has prevented Tokyo and Moscow from reaching a peace treaty, as Russia says the islands are part of the Kuril chain, while Japan considers them its northern territories.
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