to the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary

of Japan in the Russian Federation

Moscow, December 9, 1999

Your Excellency,

We appeal to You as citizens of the Russian Federation, as militants of democratic parties and organisations and also as free citizens of the world. We are doing it on behalf of us, however, we feel that at the same time we represent the minority (alas!) of our fellow-citizens that did not yield to the militarist, nationalist and xenophobic propaganda, inspired by the government of our country; the minority that once again, as it used to be in the times of the communist "empire of evil", thanks to the effort of the Russian media has been turned into a "handful of renegades".

However, we do exist. We exist and today we have come hear, to the Embassy of Japan in Moscow, in order to demonstrate that there is another Russia. Unfortunately, the poisoned public atmosphere in our country cannot give birth to a large-scale anti-war public opinion, as it used to be three years ago. That is why today we consider the international public opinion and a consolidated position of the international community the most effective instrument that can make our government stop the war.

We have come here to appeal, on the eve of the Human Rights Day, to the government of Japan, to the governments of the other countries of G-7, asking You to do as much as possible in order to make the Russian government stop the criminal Chechen war - for a long time it has nothing to do with an officially declared "war against terrorism"; in order to make Russian government and it generals stop extermination and expulsion of innocent civilian population, stop doing what the international law calls the war crimes and the crimes against the humanity.

Much depends on the unequivocal declared position of democratic and industrial countries and, to a great extent of Japan and, the most important thing, - much depends on the concrete steps that will be determined by Your position.

The Russian economics - corrupted, following the patterns of the "nomenklaturian" capitalism, suffocating under the burden of the militarism - entirely depends on the Western credits. Without the financial aid of the West, including Japan, the Russian government would not be able to continue the First Chechen war for three years. It is not able to do it know. That is why we appeal to the government of Your country, asking it to freeze any financial aid to the Russian government - both in the framework of bilateral agreements and by the international financial institutes - and to squeeze through their representatives on the International Monetary Fund - to freeze the credits until Putin's government (or any other successor of his) continues the war in the Caucasus, continues a large-scale violation of human rights that every day looks more and more like war crimes.

Not a yen to the government of our country until it continues the criminal war, continues to kill and expel its own unarmed citizens!

We ask You, Your Excellency, to inform about this letter the government of Your country.

Sincerely Yours,

Nikolai Khramov,

Secretary of the Antimilitarist Radical Association (ARA), Russian co-ordinator of the Transnational Radical Party.

Alyona Asaeva,

Vice Secretary of the ARA, member of the Transnational Radical Party

Sergei Vorontsov,

Vice Secretary of the ARA, member of the Transnational Radical Party

Gleb Edelev,

member of the ARA

Andrei Rodionov,

Member of the ARA