In May 2000, President Putin was elected under the motto of the "rebirth of a strong Russia," and worked to implement his own theory that "the government should manage domestic resources and use them to drive an economic recovery." Under his policy, increased was government control of the corporations involved in the world's largest production and deposits of natural gas and the world's second-most productive oil fields, and the weak economy existing since the collapse of the former Soviet Union recovered. |
Siberian Oil Field (Photo: Jiji Press) |
It has become clear that operatives of Russian intelligence organizations continue to engage in espionage and related activities in foreign nations while covered as embassy personnel, even after the collapse of the former Soviet Union. There have been about a dozen espionage incidents in Japan involving Soviet or Russian intelligence organizations, of which eight have resulted in arrests since the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991. The espionage is not a result of the ideological confrontation of the Cold War era, but rather evidence of a long-standing and continuing interest by Russia in Japanese and American military affairs, Japanese domestic and foreign policy and especially advanced science and technology, all of which support a view that major intelligence-gathering efforts are still going on in Japan. |
Russian Strategic Missile (Photo: Jiji Press) |
Russian Strategic Bomber (Photo: Jiji Press) |
Column of Russian Tanks (Photo: Jiji Press) |
(1) Kuroba-Udovin Case (MPD, 1997) |
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