Japan’s protest over Russian soldier statue aggravates ‘summer of tension’

Russia has rebuffed a strongly worded complaint from Japan over a statue in the city of Khabarovsk depicting a Soviet soldier smashing an imperial-era border marker bearing the Japanese emperor’s emblem, with analysts predicting bilateral relations will stay chilly.The 15-metre granite monument, commemorating the Soviet Union’s victory over Japan in 1945, shows a soldier using the butt of his rifle to shatter the border post – a replica of the markers once installed along the 50th parallel on Sakhalin Island, which divided Japanese-controlled southern Sakhalin from the Russian-held north.The Soviet Union seized control of southern Sakhalin near the end of World War II, and Japan renounced its claims to the territory in 1951.