By Ruslan Ostashko

Translated and subtitled by Scott Humor

Can a person simultaneously shout that the authorities of “this country” are selling out Russia, and advocate for giving away the Kuril Islands to Japan? A person can, if it’s a Russian-speaking, pro-Western liberal.

 

We have long been accustomed to the fact that the Ukrainian media writes all sorts of nonsense. However, when it comes to a “Kiev expert” it is one thing, but it’s quite different when such nonsense is being written by a citizen of Russia with an office in Moscow.

Here is, for example, a headline: “Kurils must be given to Japan,” published by the notorious Ukro opinion blog called “Columnist.”

The author of the publication is Mikhail Krutikhin, who calls himself a “partner of the consulting company RusEnergy.”

If someone does not understand what a “consulting company” is, it means that Mikhail helps capital flight from Russia to offshore. He writes: “in place of Putin, I would give the Japanese not two, but four Islands.”

His article, coupled with the title, sounds like a subject for the criminal code 208.1, which is called “public demand for actions aimed at violating the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation.”

Where is this person who ask for it? Restless IT-expert Ruslan Karmanov was not lazy and found the address.

“Agency address: 109012, Moscow, Ilinka street, 4, Gostiny Dvor, business center “Delovoy”, office 2102.”

Ay, dear FSB! Do you need clearance? Please go to Ilinka street, it is not so far from Lubyanka square.

But the coolest thing is not even that a crook laundering money made in Russia, sitting in a cozy office in the center of Moscow, scribbling on Ukro-media a scribble about a need to “give away the Kuril Islands.” The coolest thing that this is what Krutikhin and his likes accuse Putin in doing.

The moment the presidential press Secretary Peskov mentioned that the Soviet-Japanese Declaration of 1956 is being discussed, proverbial substance started flowing though the info-channels. And now, on the same day, on the same ukro-website, the great privatizator Igor Chubais, who, for some reasons considers himself a statesman advocating for the interests of Russia, writes: “About Putin and Japan’s Prime Minister talks in regard to the transfer of the Kuril Islands, no one explains to us even so it’s ab,out our land, country, earth… The president is responsible for the territorial integrity of the country, but no referendum, no open discussions about the transfer of the Kuril Islands to Japan in Russia. We don’t know what we are talking about in the near future – the transfer of territory or is it some kind of diplomatic game.”

The message is clear: behind the nation’s back Putin is conducting some secret negotiations. If the negotiations are secret, is means they are against Russia’s national interests. And, oh, horror! The two liberal positions merge: that the Kurils must be given away, and that Putin will sell out Russia.

At moments like this it becomes clear what Orwell meant when he described double-mindedness.

By the way, it was Boris Yeltsin, adored by the liberals, who tried to give the Kuril Islands to the Japanese in 1992. Only the intervention of Russia’s special services prevented this from taking place, by simply disrupting the already agreed upon visit of the head of the Russia-liquidation team to Tokyo.

Back then, they turned everything as if the Japanese themselves had disrupted the visit, because they did not guarantee 100% security for Yeltsin. Here’s what the Major General of Federal security service Boris Ratnikov said about the event:

“Somewhere around three o’clock in the morning at the Embassy an on-duty officer came running with a message from the TASS federal news agency about the postponement of the visit of the President. So, we saved the Kuril Islands for Russia and the President’s face. It turned out that the Japanese themselves were to blame about the visit was postponed. They refused to provide guarantee of safety. The Japanese authorities were shocked by the cancellation of the already prepared visit.”

In general, as tradition has it, thieves scream “thief” the loudest. That’s how it is with these Islands. Those who gave away everything in exchange for a “good life” for themselves now squeal that Putin is doing it behind their backs.

 

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Scott’s P.S.: Most people don’t know that Russia’s sovereignty over the Kuril Islands is a legal foundation for the UN decision to declare the Sea of Okhotsk to be an inner Russia’s sea. Otherwise, the sea would become an “international waters” with the US fleet sitting along the Russia’s coast of Kamchatka and Sakhalin.

http://www.un.org/depts/los/clcs_new/submissions_files/rus01_rev13/2014_03_13_COM_REC_RUS_Summary.pdf