The things we forget! I vaguely remember once learning that the USSR and Japan never signed a peace treaty at the end of WWII. In a sense, WWII never ended.
Now Russia may find itself facing a re-militarizing Japan in the east as well as belligerent Euros in the west. Perhaps Our Global Betters have decided that war is their only alternative to facing up to the over-indebted economic mess they have created.
“… The Kuril archipelago came under Soviet control at the end of World War II following Japan’s defeat and was subsequently incorporated into the USSR. Tokyo, however, continues to claim the four southernmost islands – Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai islets – which it calls its “Northern Territories.” The dispute has been the main obstacle to Moscow and Tokyo signing a formal peace treaty in the eight decades since the conflict. …”
I remain, I’m pretty sure, on the same page as you, Gavin. I firmly believe the war with Ukraine was completely avoidable and unnecessary. All NATO had to do was offer Russia a credible promise that Ukraine would not become a NATO member. After having reneged on a promise that NATO would not move “one inch eastward”, these countries joined: Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic (Czechia), and later additional Central/Eastern European and other countries (Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Finland, and Sweden.
In my opinion, Russia’s response has been rather restrained to what is objectively offensive military preparation. I do not believe that the Russian Federation possesses the expansionist ethos of the former USSR. Neither does Vladimir Putin, whose speeches are the most statesman-like of this entire generation of leaders, with the possible exception of Viktor Orban (he was defeated with the help of $oros).
The fact that his clear and credible words have been ignored from the beginning by NATO and the entire Western foreign policy establishment, tells precisely which side is expansionist and intent on conquest. It’s a role Americans seem unable or unwilling to understand - likely because it is so foreign to them. In objective history, if one is ever written from among the radioactive debris, these actions will one day redound to our shame.