Sakhalin Residents Accuse Vladimir Putin of Treason
// Meeting
A mass protest against the possible transfer of the Southern Kurile islands of Habomai and Shikotan to Japan took place in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Saturday. Participants demanded that President Putin discuss the future of the disputed territories with the people of Sakhalin; otherwise, they threatened to initiate a procedure to remove the head of state from office on charges of high treason.
On November 14, RF Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov announced that Russia recognized the Soviet-Japanese declaration of 1956, which made provision for transferring the islands of Shikotan and Habomai to Japan, and was prepared to fulfill it on condition that a peace treaty was signed (Kommersant reported on this on November 15). The next day, President Vladimir Putin publicly supported this initiative. The Sakhalin deputies immediately declared that they planned to make a special appeal to the head of state to discuss the plan for transferring the disputed territories, while representatives of a number of parties and public organizations threw themselves into preparing a protest meeting.
For the small city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Saturday's meeting in which more than 4000 took part was the most massive action in the last decade. According to police officers maintaining order in Lenin Square, “we didn't even have this many people out on the streets on City Day”. People turned out to protest the possible transfer of two Southern Kurile islands at the summons of the public organization For Integrity of Russia's Eastern Territories and the regional Duma deputies' group For Russian Kuriles. Representatives of the LDPR, the Communist Party, the Party of Pensioners, the Sakhalin Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, fishing industry associations, city administration officials, and Cossacks also supported the action.
At about 11:00, the protesters unrolled placards reading “Our Homeland – Sakhalin and the Kuriles”, Russia's Young People Know the Boundaries of Their State”, “We're Changing the Kurile Archipelago to the Japanese Archipelago”, “Putin – Out”, and “Vladimir Vladimirovich, Hear the People of Sakhalin! We Voted for You”. Nearly 150 people spoke out on the unacceptability of territorial concessions to Japan and the infringement of the rights of Sakhalin residents. Regional Duma deputy Sergey Ponomarov began with a statement that the Soviet-Japanese declaration of 1956 was invalid: “When signing and ratifying the declaration, the Soviet leadership committed a serious violation of the Constitution of the RSFSR in force at that time. Article 16 of the Constitution stipulates obtaining Russia's consent to change its territory. No such consent was obtained, and we have documentary proof of this through the RF State Archives”. The deputy reported that the Regional Duma had received hundreds of protest letters from Sakhalin residents, which were forwarded to the administration of the Russian President. “We will deluge the president with letters of indignation,” Mr. Ponomarev promised.
Vladimir Radchenko, the director of the Sakhalin Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography, was convinced that losing the Southern Kuriles could “be the end” of the region's fishing industry, since Russia would lose waters that accounted for one-seventh of the total allowable bioresource catch in the Far East. According to Nikolai Kazakov, the deputy director of the Sakhalin branch of the Far Eastern Geological Institute (Far Eastern Division, Russian Academy of Sciences), Japan could also lose a promising base for oil and gas production. “These cases usually demand the resignation of the government, president, and regional government,” Mr. Kazakov said in conclusion. He was supported by Aleksandr Vereshchak, a representative of the Sakhalin Fishermen's Association: “The Southerm Kuriles are not only economically important; they are also important for the country's security. The statements on the Kuriles that the President of the Russia Federation and the head of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs made today are a humiliation for us and the entire country”.
The meeting participants signed a resolution addressed to the president, the government, the State Duma, the Federation Council, and the regional administration. Sakhalin residents are demanding that the president receive their delegation for a discussion of territorial questions. “If our legal constitutional demands aimed at ensuring the integrity and inviolability of the territory of the Russian Federation do not meet with the president's understanding and approval, we reserve the right to initiate a procedure to remove the president from office on charges of high treason under Article 93 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The federal authorities must understand that the people are the bearers of sovereignty,” states the meeting resolution.
Elena Tretyakova, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 22, 2004
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