The MIG Incident Part 2 of 5

On this date, the Soviet Ambassador in Tokyo, Dmitri S. Polyansky stated that Japan was showing an “unfriendly attitude” because of its refusal to return the pilot and MiG-25 aircraft.

The Soviets claimed that the pilot made a ‘mistaken’ or emergency landing and that the Japanese Government ‘fabricated’ the story about Belenko’s desire to make a political defection.

The Soviet Ambassador also maintained that some television film and press photographs showed that force had been used to restrain the Soviet pilot and that some pictures showed him handcuffed and his head pushed down by police in a patrol car, indicating that he was not acting out of free well. Citing reports that a third country was intervening in the affair, the Soviet Ambassador asked Japanese officials not to allow this power to become involved.