Story by thedailydigest.com
Questions about Japan’s security
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has heightened security concerns across the West. In its aftermath, some analysts have argued that Moscow may have explored or considered broader military ambitions before ultimately launching the invasion.
Revealed in email leak
Emails leaked in 2022 by a member of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) revealed that the Putin regime appeared to be planning an attack on Japan several months before launching its invasion of Ukraine.
Why target Japan?
It seems that the Putin regime was preparing to go to war with Japan on the pretext of the dispute over the Northern Territories. After World War II, the Japanese government did not sign a formal peace treaty with the former Soviet Union. This was due to differences in positions regarding the Northern Territories that the Soviet army occupied at the end of the war.
Russia strengthens military power in the Northern Territories
Meanwhile, in 2011, then-President Medvedev of Russia stepped up military forces in the Northern Territories, increasing pressure on the Japanese government. Given this situation, the classified information leaked in 2022 may not be a hoax.
A leaked email
Dated on March 17th, 2022, the email was sent to exiled human rights activist Vladimir Osechkin from a Russian whistleblower dubbed “Winds of Change,” who has been writing regular dispatches to Osechkin since the war with Ukraine began.
Translations and analysis
Igor Sushko, the executive director of the Wind of Change Research Group has been translating and analyzing the correspondence from Russian to English since the start of the war and has been sharing the information with the American weekly online journal Newsweek.
Russia preparing for eastern war
In the email to Osechkin, the FSB whistleblower stated that Russia was “quite seriously preparing for a localized military conflict with Japan.
Why Ukraine?
The whistleblower also mentioned the war in Ukraine and suggested that they were certain Russia would go to war, but that they weren’t sure why Ukraine was chosen.
Confrontation was high
“Confidence that the countries would enter the stage of acute confrontation and even war was high,” wrote the FSB whistleblower in their March 17th, 2022 email to Ovechkin.
Someone else will answer why Russia attacked Ukraine
“Why Ukraine was chosen for war in the end [the scenario was not changed much] is for others to answer,” the whistleblower continued.
Specifics of the attack
Isabel Van Brugen, the Newsweek journalist who broke the story wrote about the specific details involved with Russia’s proposed attack on Japan.
Japanese Nazi’s
“The whistleblower detailed movements of electronic warfare helicopters targeting Japan, while Russia’s propaganda machine was also initiated, with a huge push to label Japanese as ‘Nazis’ and ‘fascists’.”
The rhetoric is eerily similar
While the verbiage may sound very similar to what Russia used as its justification to go to war with Ukraine, it is difficult to know whether or not Winds of Change is a legitimate FSB leaker or if their emails are part of the larger information war at play.
The emails are genuine
Christo Grozev, an expert on Russia’s Federal Security Service, stated that he believes the emails from Winds of Change are from a genuine agent connected to the FSB.
Two former FSB agents agree
Grozev said he had shown the letter “to two actual (current or former) FSB contacts” and those agents had “no doubt it was written by a colleague.”
Ukraine swapped for Japan
Ultimately, however, the whistleblower wrote that the Russian leadership “sort of swapped out Japan for Ukraine.”
War was inevitable
“But on the whole,” the FSB whistleblower continued, “war was inevitable for Russia due to the maniacal desire for war by the leadership…And now the bulk of the combat-ready units from that direction has been redeployed to Ukraine.” So we shouldn’t expect a Russian attack on Japan anytime soon.
