Japan - Russia Kuril Islands dispute:

That's a pretty sweeping and incorrect assessment.

Plenty of good French equipment out there. Where do you think Russia gets its Catherine thermals? Better than those on the Abrams I may add .

TR1 wrote:Russian ground forces did quite well in the war.


Then again, what does 1905 have to do with today?

Not much, it only show, that Russian army is more continental force than naval force. Japan lost battles with Russia on the ground like in Mongolia in 1939, but win on the sea.

Um ,Russian infantry believed the japanese would slaughter and possibbly eat them..big motivator.These Japanese however were the most civilized Russia would face.
.

If they believed that, they never would have surrendered. Quite a few did, nobody saw the point in fighting to the death.

If anything the Japanese were the ones with the culture of dishonor and extreme shame on surrender, and not caring about their POWs.

I'd find it hard to put a half decent force on a tiny useless lump of rocks. Its the fishing waters around kunashir that matter. So Why not just put 2-3 admiral gorshkov frigates patrolling around the island? Much more economical and still will make the japanese think twice.

As for tsushima and port arthur, almost enirely fault of stupid aristocratic admirals that cared more about their well being than the well being of their men. Hence the massive dissent of the armed forces afterb the war and attempt of revolution.


But for the sake of fareness the americans also had an ambush situation like port arthur and didnt react correctly to it: PEARL HARBOR

Japan seeks to solve Southern Kuril Islands dispute during Putin’s visit

"We would like to conclude a peace agreement and solve the territorial issue", former Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said

TOKYO, May 20. /TASS/. The Japanese leadership expects that President Vladimir Putin will visit Tokyo and hopes to solve the issue of the Southern Kuril Islands with Russia, former Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura has said.

"I want to switch to the political issue - we would like to conclude a peace agreement and solve the territorial issue, and therefore we would like President Putin to come to Japan," Komura said at the meeting with the speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, Sergey Naryshkin, in Tokyo on Wednesday.

"Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is thinking about this very seriously," said Komura, who is the vice-president of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

Earlier this week, Japan’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that Tokyo was planning to continue working on preparing for holding this year’s visit of the Russian president.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe informed US President Barack Obama about this at their latest meeting in April, according to the diplomats.

"At talks with President Obama in April Prime Minister Abe said that the coordination effort linked to the Russian president’s visit to Japan will continue," the ministry official told TASS. "He also said that Japan attaches great importance to the cooperation as part of the G7 and will make effort towards the peaceful solution to the issues linked to Ukraine," the diplomat said.

GarryB wrote:

Earlier this week, Japan’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that Tokyo was planning to continue working on preparing for holding this year’s visit of the Russian president.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe informed US President Barack Obama about this at their latest meeting in April, according to the diplomats.

So now the Japanese want to talk and solve the issues of the Kuril Islands... last time there was communication Japan wasn't talking and was joining sanctions over the Ukraine.

Russia is developing its far east region... that was the only benefit of an agreement with Japan over the Kuril islands... that the Japanese would invest in development in the region... which had been neglected for some time.

I hardly think the Russians will just hand over ownership of the islands... they are a strategic entrance for the Russian Navy to its main naval areas... I rather doubt they will hand them over to Japan and let Japan let the US build listening posts and other secret bases there...  this is not about fish.

Not just that, because the Kuril Islands as well as Sakhalin are Russian territory, which allowed the Russians to petition towards the UN to name the Sea of Okhotsk as undisputed Russian territorial waters 3 years ago in which the UN recognized, and just recently a consortium of Russian energy companies announced that there's at least $2 trillion worth of recoverable oil in the Sea of Okhotsk.

...It would be incredibly foolish now to sell the Kuril Islands to Japan, in which Japan will likely challenge the UN mandate and try to take a share of that petroleum pie!

Special Construction of the Russian Federation: the construction of military camps began in the Kuril Islands

"On Wednesday, Russia’s Armed Forces stepped up their combat in the area using the latest anti-missile system ‘Tor-M2U’ in the Kuril Islands, Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported.
Prior to this, for the past six months the soldiers and officers used the air defense system in experimental mode. The Russian General Staff chose this particular weapon to protect the far eastern borders of Russia due to its combat capabilities. The Tor-M2U refers to a new generation of short-range air defense systems. Its main task is to cover the most important military and government facilities from attack from aircraft, helicopters, cruise missiles and enemy drones."


Source: http://sputniknews.com/military/20150924/1027469736/russia-kurile-islands-air-defense-missile-system.html#ixzz3mgqawboN

The JSDF invaded Russia's Kuril at present day. Note the US will remain outside the conflict, Not Nuclear weapons !

Russia defense units include devices at Kuril:

10 battalion S-300/400, 5 battalion Buk-2M/3M, 6 battalion Tor-M2E/M2U, 20x Pantsir-S1, 8 battalion K-300P (P-800), Kuznetsov Naval Group: 32x MiG-29K & 24x Ka-28, 2x Gorshkov class, 3x Sovremenny class, 1x Kirov class, 3x Udaloy II class, 4x Kilo class, 2x Oscar class, 1x Yasen class, 2x Akula class, 10x T-80U, 10x BTR-82A, 5 battalion A-222 Bereg, 100x Kornet-EM, 500x troopers

Support from the mother land Tu-160, Su-35S, T-22M3, MiG-31BM, A-50 AWACS, Iskander-K, Il-38N, Su-30SM, Su-27SM2

JSDF can win ?

JSDF forces:

200x F-15J
90x F-2
150x F-4J
70x F-1
4x E-767 AWACS
13x E-2C
93x P-3C
33x P-1
2x Atago class
4x Kongō class
1x Shirane class
6x Abukuma class
7x Sōryū sub
11x Oyashio sub
2x Hatakaze class
4x Akizuki class
4x Takanami class
8x Asagiri class
6x Hatsuyuki class
9x Murasame class
3x Ōsumi LST (tank landing ship) 24x AH-1J & AH-64J, 990 Troops, 30x MBT Type 10 or Type 90
2x Hyūga (helicopter carrier) 3x SH-60K,1 MCH-101, 16 F-35B (use AIM-120C5 and AIM-9X)
6x LCAC (+ 6x Type 10 MBT or Type 90, + 180 fully equipped troops)
1x JDS Kaga (helicopter carrier) 7x SH-60J or V-22, 28x F-35B (use AIM-120C5 and AIM-9X)
1x Izumo (helicopter carrier) 7x SH-60J or V-22, 14x F-35B (use AIM-120C5 and AIM-9X)
5x Replenishment ships (2x Mashu class, 3x Towada class)
2000x Marine Corps

Japanese facilities and bases are easily within striking range from Vladivostok (mainland) with both cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. While Japan may have a force to be reckoned with, these days, Russian cruise missiles would be dropped so hard on Japanese facilities, airfields, navy bases, etc, that they would lose a ridiculous amount of manpower, equipment and what not in the first few days that at that point, taking the Kuril islands would have been pointless.

Where did you get your info on Russian forces on the Kuriles? Check out the 18th Machine Gun Artillery Division.

A very strange article:

Two Possible Solutions for Russia-Japan Territorial Dispute Over Kuril Islands

Tokyo has long claimed all of the Kuril Islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the Japanese nation appear to have gradually become open to a compromise regarding the territorial dispute with Russia that has plagued bilateral relations for decades, experts said.

http://sputniknews.com/politics/20160903/1044924720/russia-japan-kurils-solution.html

In this article the belief is that Shinso Abe isn't a western stooge, based on the fact that Japan hasn't joined the western sanctions.
But that's not the strange part, it's the words of Vasily Kashin that really got me, he states that Japan wants to improve relations with Russia to counterbalance Moscow's relationship with Beijing, how a small island with a dwindling population and a semi-decent economy can serve as a counter balance to China is beyond me, also there's the odd statement that Russia "needs Japan's help in modernizing its (Russia's) economy", i think mister Kashin needs to check his calender and see what year it is.

It is all just words.  They will not say the truth in front of the Japanese when Abe is in Russia currently signing agreements on economic development.  Japan has nothing to offer Russia but pure investments, and this is what Russia wants.  Russia also wants to counter balance China's growth in the far eastern regions with other Asian countries investments so as China doesn't get any idea's in the future of territory up north.  Because then the Koreans, Japanese, Indian's and alike will be massively pissed off.

Putin also stated that the Kuril Islands are non-negotiable anyway.

Five Reasons Why Russia Cannot Give Kuril Islands to Japan

https://sputniknews.com/politics/20160912/1045235663/kuril-islands-russia-japan.html

Hopefully Russia does not fall for anything and Russia is ready.

"JAPAN MAY DEPLOY US MILITARY BASES IN SOUTHERN KURIL ISLANDS?"


https://southfront.org/japan-may-deploy-us-military-bases-southern-kuril-islands/