I have never been able to feel any sense of affinity with the political leaders of Russia, let alone those of the former Soviet Union. The reason why may be illustrated by the following incident, which occurred when Nikita Khrushchev was the general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party and head of state.
In early May 1962, then Agriculture Minister Ichiro Kono went to Moscow for Japanese-Soviet fishery talks, and I accompanied him as a reporter for the Mainichi Shimbun. Representing the Soviet government in the talks to determine the catch quota were Deputy Prime Minister Anastasii Mikoyan and Fisheries Minister Aleksandr Ishikov.
As had been the case in the past, the negotiations ran into an impasse due to the unreasonable position taken by Moscow. Kono asked Soviet authorities to provide him with an opportunity to meet with Khrushchev. According to normal diplomatic practice, the Soviet side would have responded by specifying a time and place for the meeting. This time, however, Kono received no reply, and began to grow irritated, even though such a response was by no means unusual for the Soviet government.
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