MOSCOW. Nov 15 (Interfax-AVN) - Former Russian military leaders are critical about Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's statement concerning Russia's recognition of the 1956 Moscow Declaration, under which two southern islands of the Kuril ridge are to be transferred to Japan.
"The islands are of great military and strategic importance to Russia," Colonel General Leonid Ivashov, vice president of the Academy of Geopolitical Sciences, told Interfax-Military News Agency on Monday. "One should have no doubts that U.S. or Japanese troops will be stationed there in case the islands are transferred, and the Pacific Fleet will be locked in our bays," he said.
Ivashov, who earlier headed the Defense Ministry's international military cooperation directorate, said that "after Khrushchev's tactless statement and the subsequent signing of a declaration to this effect with Japan in 1956, the Soviet government was doing its best to evade discussions of ways to implement this document."
"In fact, the agreement was subsequently disavowed by the Soviet government unofficially," he said.
Admiral Eduard Baltin, former commander of the Black Sea Fleet, said he was categorically opposed to the possible transfer of the two islands.
"The transfer of the islands will damage national security and cause enormous economic losses. Extremely rich stocks of fish and seafood are located in this area of the Sea of Okhotsk," Baltin said.
Speaking about national security, the transfer will deal a powerful strategic blow to Russia, he stressed. "This will upset the system of aerial, surface and underwater situation control, as well as the air defense system, which took years to establish," he said.
"The transfer of Shikotan will naturally have a negative effect on the Pacific Fleet's operational capabilities, especially as far as the ships' exit from the Vladivostok base to the Pacific Ocean is concerned," Baltin went on.
According to him, the Yekaterina Straits is among the most suitable fairways for the fleet's submarine forces, as it is very deep. "After Shikotan's transfer to Japan, an anti-submarine system, most likely an American one, will be naturally deployed on the island in order to track down activity of our submarines," he said.