ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that Russian foreign policy has been in transition toward what might be considered a more normal posture for Russia in international relations. It examines certain constants of the Russian-Japanese relationship. Earlier efforts to enlist Japanese investment in Soviet Far East development in the 1960s had eventually withered on the vine during the 1970s—partly for economic reasons but also in response to the heavy-handed, military-centered Soviet foreign policy in the region under the Brezhnev regime. The Russo-Japanese Treaty of 1875 gave Russia full possession of Sakhalin Island in return for renunciation of claims to the rest of the Kurile chain, which became Japanese property. The swift defeat of the Japanese Kwantung Army left the Soviets in possession of all of Sakhalin and the southern Kurile Islands now in dispute. Russia apparently intends gradually to return to center stage in the Asia-Pacific region (APR), using a number of traditional instruments of diplomatic, economic, and military influence.
