Andrei Fesyun, deputy director for research, Institute of Asian and African Studies, Moscow State University:
“The timing was indeed good, I mean. This came during an inspection of naval exercises in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan. Everything there is quite close together. At times like this, the commander-in-chief is usually based in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, and Iturup is not far away. Of course, this was not a signal to Japan. It was a signal first and foremost to the United States and NATO. The existing arrangements in the Far East are not subject to change. They will not be up for negotiation and will be defended by every possible means. That is essentially what the Russian president wanted to convey.”
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