MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/. Moscow has called on Tokyo to cease attempts to revise the history of World War II and to fully recognize its outcomes, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has stated.

"I would like to remind everyone, as China well understands, that Japan, one of the principal aggressors during World War II, has for decades refused to accept the results of the conflict and has persistently portrayed itself as an almost innocent victim of Western powers' actions," Zakharova emphasized. She was commenting on recent visits by Japanese politicians to the Yasukuni Shrine.

Zakharova highlighted that instead of openly acknowledging its role in initiating aggression across Asia and the Pacific, Japan appears to be increasingly engaged in whitewashing its wartime crimes.

"We observe this trend reflected in Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's speech at the war's conclusion ceremony, her ritual offering to the Yasukuni Shrine - where Class A war criminals convicted by the Tokyo tribunal are venerated - and other signs of reverence toward this militaristic shrine," she said. "The pilgrimage of government officials, including the minister of defense and nearly the entire leadership of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, underscores this troubling tendency."