MOSCOW
- For decades, Russia and Japan have been divided by
their territorial dispute over the Kuril Islands, and
the still unsigned post-World War II peace treaty. Now,
yet another contentious issue has been raised that could
further complicate bilateral ties: a dispute over gold
worth billions of dollars that belonged to Russia's last
tsar.
Russia plans to initiate discussions with
Japan on the return of the tsarist gold that allegedly
ended up in Tokyo almost a century ago, the Foreign
Ministry says. Russia has made "certain inquiries to the
Japanese side" on the issue, ministry spokesman
Alexander Yakovenko announced. The issue of the gold "is
not a matter of diplomatic negotiations between our
countries for now. But this does not mean the Russian
Foreign Ministry is ignoring the issue," Yakovenko said.
The gold was shipped to Japan by anti-Bolshevik
leader Admiral Alexander Kolchak in 1920. Russian
researcher Vladlen Sirotkin, in his four books, argues
that the gold was given to Japan in exchange for
weapons, but Kolchak never received any military
hardware. Sirotkin estimates that, coupled with interest
for the time the gold has been in Japan, it would now be
worth US$80 billion. He claims that the gold is now held
at Japan's Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi.
Sirotkin
claims that Japan seized 200 tons of Kolchak's gold, as
well as "stole" 5.5 tons from the private coffers of the
last tsar, Nikolas II, while it was in transit to
Britain in March 1917. Sirotkin now argues that a
"package solution" is needed for both territorial claims
and the gold dispute between the countries. Tokyo
acquired the islands in dispute - the 10,360 square
kilometers of Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and the
Habomai islets (Kurils) - in a treaty with Russia in
1875. The Soviet Union took them back in the closing
days of World War II, a move that Japan has protested
ever since as illegal.
Further, Moscow and Tokyo
never signed a peace treaty at the end of World War II
in 1945 because of Japan's claim over the four Kuril
Islands. Russia has suggested the signing of a treaty
before solving the territorial dispute, but Japan
objects.
In 1994, Russia unearthed documents
testifying that Kolchak, who was executed by the
Bolsheviks in 1920, had sent at least 22 boxes filled
with gold ingots to Japan. However, a lack of solid
evidence has prevented Russia from turning the matter
into a big diplomatic row. Japan has not officially
commented on the gold issue, although Russian media
reports claim that Tokyo had allegedly acknowledged that
$2.7 billion worth of the tsar's gold remained in Japan.
In April, Moscow's mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, traveled
to Tokyo to discuss bilateral economic ties, where Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi told him that bilateral
relations would skyrocket in the event of a resolution
of the territorial dispute. Luzhkov reportedly conceded
that bilateral trade remained negligible, even after
growing 30 percent year-on-year in 2003 to $6 billion.
Russian analysts and media outlets have
speculated that the issue of the gold, also raised
during Luzhkov's trip to Tokyo, could be intended as
Moscow's new response to Japan's territorial claims.
Moscow previously hoped that despite the
continuing territorial dispute, Japan could still play a
role in tapping the vast natural resources of Russia's
Far East. But Tokyo has been reluctant to develop
economic ties with Moscow because of the territorial
dispute.
However, in a dramatic policy change,
Ryutaro Hashimoto in July 1997 proposed a plan to
improve bilateral relations. At the Krasnoyarsk summit
in Siberia in November 1997, both nations decided to
conclude a peace treaty by 2000, effectively separating
the treaty from the territorial issue.
Until
Hashimoto's policy turnaround, successive Japanese
governments had said that there would be no expansion of
large-scale investment in Russia without a solution to
the territorial dispute. However, hopes to solve
differences and sign a peace treaty before the end of
the century failed to materialize - and now look even
less promising than in 1997.
One of the recent
Russo-Japanese summit meetings, between President
Vladimir Putin and former prime minister Yoshiro Mori,
took place in March 2001, in the Siberian city of
Irkutsk. They signed a joint statement confirming a 1956
bilateral declaration as a "basis-setting legal
document". In the 1956 declaration, in Article 9, Moscow
pledged to return two islands - Habomai and Shikotan -
once a peace treaty was signed.
In early
February 2002, Tokyo claimed that the foreign ministers
of both nations had agreed to conduct "two-track" or
"dual" talks by separating talks on conditions for the
return to Japan of the Shikotan and Habomai group of
islets from those of the Kunashiri and Etorofu islands.
The Russian Foreign Ministry rejected using the
so-called "two-track" approach. Some Russian officials
have described Japan's hardline stance on the
territorial dispute over the four islands as detached
from reality. Russian officials have lashed out at
Koizumi's "radical position" and aggressive style.
Nonetheless, Russia has been trying to rebuild
relations with Japan based on economic ties and
cooperation in international issues, such as North
Korea. The Russian stratagem arguably involved diluting
the importance of the territorial issue in the overall
framework of relations with Japan.
In January
2003, a summit meeting in Moscow between Putin and
Koizumi was supposed to work out ways to increase their
economic and international cooperation, along with the
talks for a peace treaty.
The bilateral action
plan involved further diplomatic cooperation, presumably
including North Korean issues. Both Russia and Japan are
part of the six-party forum comprising the two Koreas,
Japan, Russia, China and the United States, to discuss
North Korea.
But a possible official dispute
over the gold in Japan would do little in encouraging
cooperation between Russia and Japan on North Korea. Now
Moscow and Tokyo may face more difficulties in
addressing North Korean issues of mutual concern unless
they first make some headway in tackling their own
bilateral problems.
Meanwhile, after recent
strong Russian economic growth, Moscow has become less
interested in Japanese economic assistance. Therefore,
Moscow seems not to be interested in any of Japan's
would-be economic incentives. By referring to the fate
of the tsarist gold, Moscow might want to indicate that
Russia is not likely to offer Tokyo any major
concessions.
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Apr 29, 2004
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