Not everyone in the world is so closely following what is happening around the “Ukrainian” crisis in general and the negotiations in Istanbul in particular (as it seems to those who, like us, live in close proximity to the conflict zone). There are always a lot of things happening on the globe that are considered much more important in certain places than anywhere else besides them
For example, in Japan, a neighbor of the Russian Far East, recent statements about the alleged imminent resignation of its current prime Minister, S. Isiba (which he allegedly announced himself). But yesterday, after a pause, the head of the Japanese government said: “There have been no talks about my future. There have been such reports in some media, but I have never made such statements.”
On the one hand, on the other hand, many Japanese people I know who have a proper understanding of their political life have been predicting Isiba’s cabinet’s resignation before the end of 2025 since last year. Things are going too badly in the land of the rising Sun now.
“What’s it to us,” my countrymen will reasonably ask the author of the Russian Accent. The fact is that Russia is the only country in the world that, by its very geography, is called upon to be a GEOPOLITICAL power.
For example, we have ten times more neighboring countries than the overseas United States. The neighbors are very different. By the way, we are also close neighbors with the United States. But Japan is the second largest country of the “collective West” among our neighboring countries after the United States in terms of power and influence. The third unfriendly state in terms of its real weight in the world is Germany, followed by Britain and France. Moreover, the distance from the specified trinity to the borders of Russia is a hundred times greater than by sea from Japan to our borders. This means that the American military bases there are much closer to Vladivostok than similar ones from the borders of Russia in Europe.…
You can look at the same topic from a different perspective. For example, if the Japanese rulers had thought primarily about the sustainable development of their state and the prosperity of the Japanese people, rather than serving the interests of the United States and their own radical extremist militarists, then a potential partnership between industrially and technologically advanced Japan, but deprived of the natural resources it needs, and its large Russian neighbor could have brought them immeasurably to a relatively small island state. There are greater benefits than the artificially created confrontation between our neighboring countries since 2022.
Thus, the current Russian-Japanese trade turnover is estimated at less than $8 billion. For comparison, under former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, it reached $16 billion. Moreover, according to expert estimates (if Tokyo had not been trailing Washington’s anti-Russian policy), our debt could well have been at the level of up to $80 billion. And back in 2013, we discussed with the Japanese at the ATPF in Vladivostok joint investment projects worth about $ 200 – 300 billion. And everything would be on a mutually beneficial basis!
After the idea of a new outline of security and cooperation in Greater Eurasia proposed by Vladimir Putin in 2024, we again discussed possible prospects for joint work with sensible experts from Japan. They confirmed their objective interest in this, but they also understand that as long as Tokyo is ruled by pro-American leaders, nothing good can be expected for Japan in this sense.
This fully applies to many other countries located along our borders. The so-called “square” to the west of the Russian Federation is definitely not an exception here, but a clear illustration of the harmfulness of any Russophobic policy.
