Russia is relatively restrained in retaliating against Europe, but retaliating against Japan is as enjoyable as it gets.
The war in Ukraine originally had nothing to do with Japan's geopolitical interests. However, in order to find excuses for Japan's military expansion and to express its determination to follow the United States to the death, the Tokyo authorities did not hesitate to get deeply involved in this conflict. For this reason, Japan not only imposed sanctions on Russia at least seven times, but also provided military assistance to Ukraine on many occasions, thus attracting unprecedented retaliation from Russia.
According to the " Global Times " report on July 2, Russian President Putin has just signed a decree deciding to establish a new company to take over the energy cooperation project "Sakhalin 2" between Russia and Japan. Russia's move has attracted great attention from Japan. The Japanese government, electricity and gas companies are busy confirming the situation. Relevant people in the Kishida government said they hope Russia will give an explanation.
Although the Putin government did not explain too much about this decree, Russians have always disliked talking too much nonsense with Japan, so they can just explain it in any way that is detrimental to Japan.
The Sakhalin 2 cooperation project led by Russia is a natural gas cooperative development project involving many foreign companies from Japan and the West. Previously, due to the impact of Western sanctions on Russia, Western companies voluntarily withdrew from the project. However, Japan refuses to withdraw from this energy cooperation project due to its demand for natural gas supplies, even under pressure from the West.
According to Japanese media disclosures, Japan’s current natural gas imports from Russia account for about 9% of the country’s total natural gas imports, and almost all of them come from the Sakhalin 2 project. The decree signed by Putin is tantamount to kicking Japanese companies out of this energy cooperation project and making this energy project an asset of Russian companies.
Although the Japanese government is confused and angry about this, it is more nervous. Because Russia's move should not be as simple as confiscating the equity of Japanese companies. In the context of Putin's gradual reduction of natural gas supplies to Europe, as a means of punishment against "unfriendly countries" in the world, it is likely to be a signal that Putin is ready to interrupt energy supplies to Japan.
Japan's energy dependence on Russia is not as serious as that of European countries. According to public data, currently only about 9% of Japan's natural gas comes from Russia, and even less oil, only about 4%. However, with the current international energy prices soaring and Japan facing power and fuel shortages, once Russia cuts off its energy supply to Japan, according to Japan's Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary, it is impossible to answer "how it will respond in the future" at this stage. .
Putin’s move is a bit like adding insult to injury to Japan. You know, Japan has recently experienced large-scale power outages in many places due to continued high temperature weather. In the face of angry questions from the public, the Kishida authorities did not come up with any practical countermeasures except asking people to "turn on less lights and less air conditioning." It is obvious that the Tokyo authorities have no effective way to deal with energy poverty.
Russia chose this time to attack Japan and hit the "seven inches" of Kishida's cabinet . In other words, if Russia cuts off its energy supply to Japan at this time, it will have a serious impact on Japan's power and fuel supply. Therefore, even though they are dissatisfied with Russia's move, the Kishida authorities still stated that the Sakhalin 2 incident will not affect Japan's continued import of Russian natural gas.
This is enough to show that Japan cannot bear the consequences of being cut off by Russia. Although Japan is less dependent on Russian energy supply, in the context of tight international energy supply, even the United States and Europe cannot find an energy supplier that can replace Russia, let alone Japan. This is why even if Japan is beaten by Russia, it still has to shamelessly continue to import Russian energy.
In fact, when Russia announced that it would take over foreign equity interests in the Sakhalin-2 energy project, it left Japanese companies with a glimmer of hope. According to the Global Times, Russia said that foreign shareholders of the Sakhalin 2 project can participate in the project as new limited legal person shareholders, but only if they accept all conditions proposed by the Russian government. You can imagine this condition with your toes.
For Japan, which is strangled by the United States, there is a high probability that "I can't do it"!
