News Newsweek: Russia planned local conflict with Japan in 2021

"Confidence that the countries would enter the stage of acute confrontation and even war was high. Why Ukraine was chosen for war in the end [the scenario was not changed much] is for others to answer," they wrote. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The plans for war with Japan may have been related to a longstanding territorial dispute concerning the strategically important Kuril Islands, which are occupied by Russia but claimed by Japan. [...] The FSB, in August 2021, declassified information concerning the brutal torture of Soviet citizens by Japanese special services during World War II. The FSB whistleblower suggested that this was part of an "information campaign against Japan" that could be used to help condition Russians for the planned 2021 attack.

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