• Criticizes Tokyo for ‘incorrectly applying wide sanctions,’ warns against supporting NATO and US ‘nuclear proliferation’
• Galuzin defends Moscow’s war in Ukraine, accuses G7 and other European countries of ‘double standards’ for failing to speak about American ‘aggression’ in Middle East

Khaldon Azhari 

TOKYO: Russian Ambassador to Japan Mikhail Galuzin believes the current and future relationship between the two countries should have “no connection to what is happening in and around Ukraine.”

In an interview with Arab News Japan, Galuzin said that the cooperation between the two nations has been “very valuable and mutually beneficial for decades.” However, he criticized Japan for “incorrectly applying wide sanctions.”

Galuzin also warned against Japan forming nuclear alliances with others. “As Japan is the only country that has suffered from a nuclear bombing, it should fight to eliminate nuclear weapons. Sharing nuclear missions within the NATO member states headed by the US (takes) Japan closer to nuclear weapons.”

Galuzin accused the US of committing nuclear proliferation by establishing the AUKUS framework, a trilateral security pact with Australia and the UK, to create Australia’s nuclear-powered submarine fleet.

He also warned against involving NATO in East Asia. “We think the policy of the US and its allies, including Japan, to involve NATO in the Asia-Pacific region issues is very dangerous because, wherever NATO was involved, there is no peace, no stability and no prosperity. Look at what happened in Iraq, Syria, and Libya. Yugoslavia was destroyed and divided.”

Galuzin said that Asian-centered mechanisms for peace, security and stability, like the East Asian Summit, were positive; and criticized America’s strategy in the region.

“Instead of Asian groupings, the US tries to create a group of US-centered coalitions like AUKUS, Quad, US-Japan, US-(South) Korea and US-Australia military alliances. They are closed structures that divide the region, not consolidate it. We recommend that Asian countries consider whether it is good for the region’s future to welcome NATO here,” he said.

On current Japan-Russia relations and future prospects, the ambassador said Russia sees Japan, the G7 and other European countries’ positions as based on “double standards” because they did not previously speak out against the US’ “past aggression” against countries like Yugoslavia.

“For instance, the American aggression against Iraq was based on allegations that Iraq had arms of mass destruction, which turned out to be a lie. However, they attacked and destroyed Iraq, and hundreds of thousands of innocent people were killed, which led to the Middle East becoming a hub for … widespread international terrorism,” he said.

“The G7 countries, including the Japanese leadership, misinterpreted the goals and tasks of our (Russian) special military operation in Ukraine and completely ignored an obvious fact that a huge and very real threat was coming from the Ukrainian government policy toward Russia,” he told Arab News Japan.

“After the 2014 bloody coup d’état, which led to an illegal regime change in Ukraine, the society there has been educated to hate all things related to Russia, including language, culture, traditions, common history and relations, destroying millions of ties between people,” he said.

Moreover, he claimed that radical Ukrainian forces, whom he labeled as Nazis, had seized power and declared war on everything related to Russia, especially in what is known as the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics. These breakaway groups had rejected the coup not only because they considered it illegal, but as a result of the regime tried to prohibit the Russian language in Ukraine, called to oust all Russians from Crimea, and cut all ties with Russia, he added.

“That regime of Ukrainian Nazis also received a huge amount of lethal arms from NATO to attack the population, mainly of Russian origin, killing 14,000 people and injuring hundreds, including children. They caused widespread devastation in that region. It has been ongoing genocide for the last eight years that nobody has paid attention to except Russia,” according to Galuzin.

“The Kyiv regime had rejected the Minsk agreements on peaceful settlement in the eastern part of Ukraine.”

Galuzin said that the Russian government believed a possible dangerous nuclear war could be ignited if Kyiv joined NATO, which had several nations armed with these weapons.

Galuzin claimed that Russia found documents showing the Ukrainian regime, in cooperation with the US, preparing for “the production of biological weaponry, relying on more than 30 military biological facilities located in Ukraine and controlled by the Pentagon.”