Arab News Japan 

TOKYO: More than 40 ambassadors to Japan have signed an open letter calling on departing Russian Ambassador Mikhail Yurievich Galuzin to explain his claim in February that “Russia has no intention to occupy Ukraine.”

Galuzin was scheduled to speak at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan on Friday afternoon and the ambassadors, led by U.S. Ambassador Rahm Emanuel, demanded that the Russian provide clarity on his country’s intentions in Ukraine, noting that “the veracity of your words matters.”

The letter started: “Since Russia’s soon-to-be-departing Ambassador to Japan Mikhail Yurievich Galuzin last appeared at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in February and promised that Russia did not intend to occupy Ukraine, here’s what has happened:  Russian forces have killed over 6,000 Ukrainian civilians, including children.  Moscow has bombed hundreds of hospitals, schools, and churches.  Russia’s military has tortured, mutilated, and raped Ukrainian citizens and looted Ukrainian homes.  Putin’s attempt to illegally annex four regions of Ukraine was rejected by the vast majority of the nations of the world.  Hundreds of thousands of Russia’s best and brightest are fleeing the country.  Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a violation of the UN Charter, to which it is a signatory.”

“When Ambassador Galuzin appears again at the FCCJ, a well-established institution in democratic Japan, we the undersigned expect to see the outgoing Ambassador answer for Russia’s war in Ukraine.”

The ambassadors listed five key issues that they wanted their Russian counterpart to address: the “de-Nazification” of Ukraine; the false claim that Russian doesn’t target civilians; the expansion of NATO to Finland and Sweden; the promise to avoid the use of nuclear weapons; and the exodus of Russia’s brightest young people.

The letter offered evidence that Russia had broken its promises and ruined its economy after saying it would not invade Ukraine, mocking Moscow with the words, “Far from the technological/economic/military superpower that it desired to be, this brain drain is turning Russia into a simple and unreliable gas and oil economy.”

In signing off, the letter noted that Japan’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club has a different set of ethics from Russia: “Unlike how the Kremlin treats the Russian public, deception and disinformation are not accepted at the FCCJ.  Free and open societies such as ours expect more than how the Russian government treats its own people.”

Most of the ambassadors who signed the letter were from Europe and other Western nations. No ambassadors from African or Middle Eastern countries put their names to the letter.