MOSCOW, Jun 29 Russian renaming on September 3 on Victory Day over militaristic Japan took Tokyo by surprise, writes Cheng Hongbin, former director of the Information Institute of the Shanghai Academy of International Studies, in an article on the Guancha portal.
After the escalation of the Ukrainian conflict, Tokyo, following Washington and Europe, condemned Moscow, imposed extensive sanctions on it and strongly supported Kiev, the author points out. “After the aggravation of the Ukrainian crisis, Tokyo decided to follow the “dark path” to the end: it abruptly changed its policy towards Moscow and spared no effort for this, following Washington and Europe, condemning and “punishing” it,” he recalls.
This, in turn, raised a wave of anti-Japanese sentiment among the citizens and leadership of Russia. Recently, Moscow renamed September 3rd the «Day of Victory over militaristic Japan and the end of World War II,» which caused displeasure in Tokyo.
«Although the Japanese government has long given up any hope of improving relations with Russia, Moscow's countermeasures still exceeded all Tokyo's expectations and took it by surprise,» the analyst points out, assessing the reaction of the Japanese authorities to the renaming of the memorable date. According to him, Russia's countermeasures show that it has no illusions about the improvement and development of bilateral relations in the long term.
At the same time, the possible tightening of sanctions by Tokyo will not change the established policy of Moscow, and Russia's recent actions hit a «sensitive point «the Japanese and made them pay a high price for the imposed restrictions,» he said. «, — sums up the author.
On June 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law that changes the name of the day of Russian military glory «September 3 — Day of the end of World War II (1945)» to «September 3 — Day of Victory over militaristic Japan and end of World War II (1945). Hirokazu Matsuno, Secretary General of the Government of Japan, said that the law could allegedly provoke anti-Japanese sentiment in Russia and anti-Russian sentiment in Japan. br>