Regarding the Oct. 10 editorial "Japan-Russia ties pinched": The territorial problem in Russo-Japanese relations is seriously aggravated by the Russian population's ignorance of its origin. The average Russian is convinced that all of the Kuril Islands were seized by Japan either during the Russo-Japanese war or as a result of intervention by foreign armies after the revolution of 1917. Prominent Soviet and Russian Japanologists have lied about the real history of the present Russo-Japanese state border. True publications on this subject are very rare and practically unavailable nowadays.
Under these circumstances, Russian political figures don't dare express the slightest personal disagreement, if any, with the overwhelming territorial stand, because they cannot risk their careers and perhaps their personal security. Frankly, I see no way out of this situation.