TOKYO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th February, 2023) Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated in July 2022, shared his thoughts on Russia and the country's president, Vladimir Putin, in his recently published memoir seen by Sputnik.
Abe's memoir, which was written by a group of journalists in the form of interviews recorded from October 2020 to October 2021, was published earlier this week.
In the book, Abe said that Russia had taken on dirty work in the fight against the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, banned in Russia).
"In terms of military power, Russia is very much taking on dirty work. After all, the bombing of the strongholds of the Islamic State extremist organization was carried out by Russia. IS used Syrian oil that the world buys as a source of funding. (Russia) has tried to sweep this IS away. And this role is important for the world community," Abe wrote in connection with the idea of then-US President Donald Trump to restore Russia's membership in the G7.
The former Japanese prime minister added that during the Cold War era, the Soviet Union had been seen as an enemy and it had been easy for Western countries to unite against it, but time had changed and it had become difficult to resolve some global issues without Putin's involvement.
Abe, who met with Putin in person 27 times, also recalled that the Russian leader had given him the impression of a cold man, but in fact he had turned out to be sincere.
"Putin looks cold, but against expectations he is sincere and is not so cold. He loves black humor," the book read.
Abe, Japan's longest-serving prime minister, was in power from 2006-2007 and from 2012-2020. He was mortally wounded by shots fired by a 41-year-old man while giving a campaign speech for a colleague in the city of Nara on July 8, 2022. The politician was cremated and had a funeral at a Buddhist temple on July 12, which was attended by 26,000 people.
