TOKYO: Russia’s ambassador to Japan, Mikhail Galuzin, is expected to leave his post in November, without specifying his successor, Japanese media said citing Russian “sources”.
His departure comes amid strained bilateral relations over the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began in February and Japan’s full participation in Western sanctions against Moscow.
Galuzin, 62, assumed the post of ambassador in March 2018. He is known for his expertise in Japanese affairs, having held diplomatic posts in Japan four times since the days of the Soviet Union.
Galuzin joined the Russian Foreign Ministry in 1983 and served as Minister and Counselor at the Russian Embassy in Japan from 2001 to 2008. He also served as Russian Ambassador to Indonesia from 2012 to 2017, before being appointed to the Japan by President Vladimir Putin in January. 2018.
Galuzin entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union in 1983. From 1983 to 1986 he served in the Embassy of the Soviet Union in Japan, from 1992 to 1997 in the Russian Embassy in Japan and 2001 to 2008, Minister of the Japanese Embassy,
Galuzin is firmly committed to Moscow’s position on issues related to its war against Ukraine and the islands controlled by Russia and claimed by Japan, known as the Northern Territories in Japan and the South Kuril Islands in Russia.
In early October, he was summoned to the Japanese Foreign Ministry after it ordered a Russian diplomat based in Sapporo to leave in retaliation for Moscow’s expulsion of a Japanese consul the previous month.
Galuzin said at the time that such a move would only further deteriorate bilateral relations.
Galuzin had said in an exclusive interview with the ANJ that Japanese sanctions against his country would cause damage to Japan. Russia suspended talks with Tokyo to sign a peace treaty to resolve the territorial dispute and issued rulings barring dozens of Japanese politicians, lawmakers and journalists from entering Russia.
In an interview with Arab News Japan, Galuzin criticized Japan for “incorrectly applying broad sanctions”, but also said the cooperation between the two nations has been “very valuable and mutually beneficial for decades”.
Galuzin also warned against Japan forming nuclear alliances with others and NATO involvement in East Asia. “We believe that the policy of the United States and its allies, including Japan, of involving NATO in matters of the Asia-Pacific region is very dangerous because, wherever NATO is involved, there is no There is no peace, no stability and no prosperity. Look at what happened in Iraq, Syria and Libya. Yugoslavia was destroyed and divided.
“Instead of Asian groupings, the US is trying to create a cluster of US-centric coalitions like the AUKUS, Quad, US-Japan, US-(South) Korea, and US military alliances. -Australia. They are closed structures that divide the region and not consolidate it. We recommend that Asian countries consider whether it is good for the future of the region to host NATO here,” he said.
Regarding the current relations between Japan and Russia and the prospects for the future, the ambassador said that Russia considers the positions of Japan, the G7 and other European countries to be based on “double standards” because that they had not previously spoken out against “past aggression” by the United States against countries like Yugoslavia.
“For example, the US aggression against Iraq was based on allegations that Iraq possessed weapons 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, leading to the Middle East becoming a hub for…widespread international terrorism,” he said.
“The G7 countries, including the Japanese leadership, misinterpreted the objectives and tasks of our (Russian) special military operation in Ukraine and completely ignored a clear fact that a huge and very real threat came from the policies of the Ukrainian government towards Russia,” he said. told Arab News Japan.
“After the bloody coup of 2014, which led to illegal regime change in Ukraine, society was educated to hate everything about Russia, including language, culture, traditions, shared history and relationships, destroying millions of bonds between people,” he said.
Moreover, he claimed that the radical Ukrainian forces, which he referred to as Nazis, had seized power and declared war on everything related to Russia, especially in the so-called people’s republics of Donetsk and from Lugansk. These dissident groups had rejected the coup not only because they considered it illegal, but because the regime had tried to ban the Russian language in Ukraine, called for the expulsion of all Russians from Crimea and cut all ties with Russia, he added.
“This regime of Ukrainian Nazis also received a huge amount of lethal weapons from NATO to attack the population, mainly of Russian origin, killing 14,000 people and injuring hundreds, including children. They caused widespread devastation in this area. It’s an eight-year-old genocide that no one 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 the Russian government believes a potentially dangerous nuclear war could be triggered if Kyiv joins NATO, which has several nations armed with such weapons.
Galuzin claimed that Russia had found documents showing that the Ukrainian regime, in cooperation with the United States, was preparing for “the production of biological weapons, relying on more than 30 military biological facilities located in Ukraine and controlled by the Pentagon.