Putin’s latest insult: Kremlin refuses to remove ‘absolutely unacceptable’ war monument

Along the Amur River in Russia’s Far East, a new bronze figure now looms over passersby: a Soviet soldier, rifle raised, mid-strike against a stone marker.

What is engraved on that marker has turned a WWII commemoration into a live diplomatic incident with a US treaty ally on the Pacific, three days after the unveiling.

The 15-meter bronze in Khabarovsk was unveiled on September 4, 2026, and depicts the soldier smashing a border post bearing Japan’s imperial chrysanthemum crest.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has since demanded that Russia halt the installation and remove it, according to a statement carried by Nasha Niva, which said the demand was communicated through diplomatic channels. Russia has publicly refused.

Tokyo’s demand, Moscow’s refusal

Takaichi called the depiction “absolutely unacceptable” and said the chrysanthemum is recognized worldwide as a symbol of Japan.

Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi told reporters that Tokyo had “strongly requested the Russian side to cease the installation and remove it,” Turkiye Today reported, citing diplomatic messages sent on September 5.

Moscow’s answer came from Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova. “All that remains is to tell the wind to not blow and the Sun not to shine,” she said in a statement published by RT.

The Russian outlet said the design was chosen from seven competing projects and was initiated by President Vladimir Putin, working with the Russian Military Historical Society and regional authorities in Khabarovsk Krai.

A border stone from a lost war

Nikolay Ovsiyenko, deputy head of the Kremlin’s humanitarian affairs office, said the crushed border post is an exact copy of markers Japan installed on Sakhalin after seizing the southern half of the island in the 1905 Russo-Japanese war.

Inscriptions read “Great Empire of Japan” above the chrysanthemum and “border” below it.

The unveiling coincided with Russia’s annual commemoration of Japan’s 1945 surrender, an anniversary that Moscow renamed in 2023 to the Day of Victory over Militarist Japan.

Tokyo and Moscow have never signed a formal WWII peace treaty because of the unresolved territorial dispute over four islands in the southern Kurils, which Japan claims and Russia controls.

A Pacific front while Ukraine burns

The dispute opens a second diplomatic front for Moscow with a G7 government that has aligned with Western sanctions over Ukraine.

Japan is a US ally, and Takaichi took office as prime minister in October 2025.

As of this writing, Russian authorities have given no indication that the monument will be moved.

This article is made and published by Jens Asbjørn Bogen, who may have used AI in the preparation