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Article: KURIL ISLANDS RELY MORE ON JAPAN THAN ON MOTHER RUSSIA.(News)
- Article from:
- Seattle Post-Intelligencer
- Article date:
- March 15, 1999
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of the Dialog Corporation by Gale Group. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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With the fish factories shuttered and the one-note economy in shambles, the Russians on these stormy, volcanic islands are debating a radical survival plan - leasing their territory to covetous Japan.
Russia and Japan have been feuding for 53 years over the four southernmost Kuril Islands as if they were sacred ground. Yet the scene at Kunashir's port - the heart of the most populous island - is an unbroken vision of rot and decay.
Whitecaps crash down on dozens of rusting fishing trawlers, many half-submerged and abandoned for years. Derelict cars and wrecked machinery litter a shore that looks more like a floating junkyard than a working port. A ...