TIGblogs - Ajay Kamalakaran

This is the first editorial in this week's issue of the Sakhalin Times

Even though central Russia is a prime target for terrorists, security measures are far less complicated in that part of the country. St Petersburg is very close to the Finland border but has never been declared a closed zone. In fact, foreign passengers who take a domestic flight from a central Russian city don’t have excess passport and visa checks. Compare this to Vladivostok, the largest city in the Russian Far East, where the Soviet Union is well and truly alive. On arrival, a policeman won’t allow a foreign passenger to get off the aircraft without showing a passport, visa and valid registration. A foreigner dare not leave Vladivostok without registering in the city, lest the police stop him/her from boarding a flight.

A new border zone decree for the Sakhalin Region will be finalised in the near future after consultations with the regional authorities. The security agencies believe that the beaches of the island should be considered maritime borders and put off limits to foreigners. These areas are sensitive, the agencies feel. Imagine if a foreigner went to a beach by the Sea of Okhotsk and took pictures! He/she could then sell these sensitive pictures to the Japanese Navy, who might then just decide to launch a surprise attack and try and reclaim Karafuto for the Emperor. This is actually how bizarre the new closed zone rule sounds.

It is equally senseless to close off districts like Kholmsk, Korsakov and Aniva. If information from (very) reliable sources are to be believed, then even workers at the LNG construction site will need to show their permits each time they enter and exit the zone. We’d also like to know what makes Okha, Nogliki, Alexandrovsk-Sakhalinsksy and Tymovsk sensitive areas. It is, however, possible that the authorities want to prevent foreigners from seeing the appalling infrastructure and living conditions in some places on the island but these places have no value from a national defence point of view. Restrictions on freedom of movement do nothing but create unnecessary bureaucratic hassles and interfere with the functioning of business on the island.

Every country has a right to protect its territorial integrity and sovereignty but the obsession with security in an area which has been peaceful for the last six decades is unwarranted. If there is a threat to national interests in the Russian Far East, then it squarely lies in those areas which have literally become Chinese colonies. It’s time that the security agencies understood that Russia is too powerful militarily for any of its territories to be wrested away by a foreign country. The authorities would be well served if they actually opened more areas in the Sakhalin Region than closed. This may just help spread the effects of the economic boom all across the island and not just restrict it to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.