Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday suggested Japanese officials should commit suicide if they don't support his stance on the disputed Kuril Islands.
"Those of the samurai who feel especially sad can end their life in a traditional Japanese way, by committing seppuku. If they dare, of course," he wrote on X (formerly Twitter). Seppuku, also called harakiri, is a form of ritualistic suicide.
His inflammatory message came after Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivered a speech to his country's parliament earlier in the day about signing a peace treaty with Russia to formally end World War II.
The dispute over the Kuril Islands is one of the main reasons why Russia and Japan have never signed such a treaty. The islands, which Japan calls the Northern Territories, are located in the Pacific Ocean between Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula and the Japanese island of Hokkaido. Soldiers from the Soviet Union seized four of the islands at the end of World War II, and the land has been claimed by both Russia and Japan ever since.
According to Kishida, Tokyo is "fully committed" to negotiating a peace treaty with Moscow, but Medvedev shut down the proposal unless Japan accepts the Kuril Islands as part of Russia.
Newsweek contacted Kishida's office and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs via email on Tuesday for comment.
"Japan's Prime Minister Kishinda has once again spoken in favor of a peace treaty with Russia. Surely, on condition of discussing the Kurils and maintaining the sanctions," Medvedev said on X.
The former Russian leader, who is close ally of current President Vladimir Putin and was named deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia in 2020, laid out his conditions for a treaty with Japan.
"1. The 'territorial question' is closed once and for all in accordance with the Constitution of Russia. 2. The Kuril Islands will be actively developing, and their strategic role will be growing in parallel, including stationing new weapons there," he wrote.
Medvedev's third condition then made it clear Russia would not be willing to negotiate giving up the islands.
"We don't give a damn about the 'feelings of the Japanese' concerning the so-called 'Northern Territories.' These are not 'disputed territories' but Russia," he said.
Medvedev then made his suggestion about officials committing seppuku before ending his post by referencing Japan's strong partnership with the United States, despite the latter country detonating two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
The Kremlin official said seppuku would "surely" feel "a lot better" than "French-kissing Americans, having totally forgotten Hiroshima and Nagasaki..."
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Jon Jackson is an Associate Editor at Newsweek based in New York. His focus is on reporting on the Ukraine ... Read more
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