MOSCOW, October 2. /TASS/. Russia noted Tokyo’s attempts to use the Ukrainian issue to advance its illegitimate territorial claims to the southern Kuril Islands, the Foreign Ministry said in a report "On the actions (inaction) of the authorities of Italy, Germany, and Japan, which are destroying and falsifying history and justifying fascism and its collaborators."
"There have been repeated attempts to exploit the Ukrainian issue to satisfy Tokyo’s illegitimate territorial claims to the southern Kuril Islands. In the Japanese information space, readers are being indoctrinated with the idea that Russia is focused on 'forceful methods of solving problems,' 'parallels' between the 'invasion of Ukraine' (beginning with the ‘annexation of Crimea’ in 2014) and the 'illegal seizure of the northern territories by Soviet troops' in 1945, as well as the absence of alternatives to solidarity with Vladimir Zelensky’s regime in Kiev in order to achieve progress on the issue of 'returning' Russian islands to Japan," the ministry said in a statement.
According to Russian diplomats, the distortion of facts has reached unprecedented levels as part of the Russophobic media campaign that has been ongoing in Japan since February 2022. "Despite the Russophobic campaign in Japan, the number of people wishing to study Russian has not decreased nationwide, and has even increased in some areas, a fact that has surprised the leading Japanese media. This can be explained by the fact that, with Russia at the center of media attention, there is a growing demand for information directly from Russian sources," the report added.
