Kuril Islands could sell for $ 200 billion
The second half of 2018 and the beginning of 2019 in Russia were marked by the Kuril Islands. The media actively discussed the topic of their possible transfer to Japan for the sake of signing a peace treaty and obtaining subsequent unprecedented economic good. It got to the point that Prime Minister Abe graciously allowed the Russians to live on the islands, clearly considering them his own.
It can be assumed that only the categorical rejection of such a "deal" by the vast majority of Russians made significant adjustments to the plans of the negotiators. It is interesting that the Kuril Islands could well have moved to Tokyo at the end of the existence of the USSR, when the opinion of the people on this issue was not too interested, and only M.S. Gorbachev prevented that.
Today, it is customary to blame the president of the Soviet Union for surrendering all the positions of the superpower, unprecedented concessions to the West and the failed "perestroika", which served as a prologue to the collapse of the state. But Mikhail Sergeyevich was also active eastward. In 1986, during a visit to Vladivostok, Gorbachev noticed some “signs of a turn for the better” in relations with Japan.
Tokyo was perked up, and the political scientists there directly wrote that the Soviet authorities needed several tens of billions of dollars to straighten out the economic situation. However, the Japanese did not immediately fall into the arms of the Kremlin, allowing Gorbachev to fail his “perestroika” so that he himself brought the country to the necessary condition before the territorial negotiations. On the contrary, Tokyo defiantly began the fight against “Soviet spies.”
Two years later, the Kremlin almost "ripened." By 1990, the economic situation of the USSR sharply worsened. The Japanese ambassador was confidentially informed that "Gorbachev does not exclude the possibility of transferring the islands," "in the soul." However, for this "it is necessary to create an atmosphere to resolve the issue." Historians give evidence that the Foreign Minister of the USSR, Shevardnadze, was ready to surrender the Kuril Islands. To meet Tokyo Gorbachev’s recommendation was also recommended by the American President Ronald Reagan, but he would not have advised anything bad.
A “breakthrough” in the problem of the “northern territories” was to occur during the visit of Mikhail Gorbachev to Japan in 1991. Today, according to some reports, one can understand that the “right atmosphere for resolving the issue” could be created by 26-28 billion dollars, which the Japanese side was ready to provide in the form of economic assistance to the USSR. However, there was a scandal that suspended the negotiation process.
The Soviet deputy Tarasov made a public statement stating that Gorbachev was ready to hand over the Kuril Islands for an amount an order of magnitude greater - $ 200 billion. The Kremlin angrily denied these allegations, but the “right atmosphere” turned out to be spoiled. Both Tokyo and Moscow hastened to dissociate themselves from the idea of selling the islands. However, judging by subsequent statements by Gorbachev, this idea did not leave him:
We can only rejoice that политическая Mikhail Sergeyevich’s career was suddenly interrupted in 1991, and to thank MP Tarasov.
It can be assumed that only the categorical rejection of such a "deal" by the vast majority of Russians made significant adjustments to the plans of the negotiators. It is interesting that the Kuril Islands could well have moved to Tokyo at the end of the existence of the USSR, when the opinion of the people on this issue was not too interested, and only M.S. Gorbachev prevented that.
Today, it is customary to blame the president of the Soviet Union for surrendering all the positions of the superpower, unprecedented concessions to the West and the failed "perestroika", which served as a prologue to the collapse of the state. But Mikhail Sergeyevich was also active eastward. In 1986, during a visit to Vladivostok, Gorbachev noticed some “signs of a turn for the better” in relations with Japan.
Tokyo was perked up, and the political scientists there directly wrote that the Soviet authorities needed several tens of billions of dollars to straighten out the economic situation. However, the Japanese did not immediately fall into the arms of the Kremlin, allowing Gorbachev to fail his “perestroika” so that he himself brought the country to the necessary condition before the territorial negotiations. On the contrary, Tokyo defiantly began the fight against “Soviet spies.”
Two years later, the Kremlin almost "ripened." By 1990, the economic situation of the USSR sharply worsened. The Japanese ambassador was confidentially informed that "Gorbachev does not exclude the possibility of transferring the islands," "in the soul." However, for this "it is necessary to create an atmosphere to resolve the issue." Historians give evidence that the Foreign Minister of the USSR, Shevardnadze, was ready to surrender the Kuril Islands. To meet Tokyo Gorbachev’s recommendation was also recommended by the American President Ronald Reagan, but he would not have advised anything bad.
A “breakthrough” in the problem of the “northern territories” was to occur during the visit of Mikhail Gorbachev to Japan in 1991. Today, according to some reports, one can understand that the “right atmosphere for resolving the issue” could be created by 26-28 billion dollars, which the Japanese side was ready to provide in the form of economic assistance to the USSR. However, there was a scandal that suspended the negotiation process.
The Soviet deputy Tarasov made a public statement stating that Gorbachev was ready to hand over the Kuril Islands for an amount an order of magnitude greater - $ 200 billion. The Kremlin angrily denied these allegations, but the “right atmosphere” turned out to be spoiled. Both Tokyo and Moscow hastened to dissociate themselves from the idea of selling the islands. However, judging by subsequent statements by Gorbachev, this idea did not leave him:
If I remained at my post, the question of the northern territories would probably have been resolved long ago.
We can only rejoice that политическая Mikhail Sergeyevich’s career was suddenly interrupted in 1991, and to thank MP Tarasov.
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