Kremlin says Japan's actions hinder negotiations with Russia

Japan expresses solidarity with Western countries unfriendly to Russia and joins the anti-Russian sanctions, thus hindering the dialog on a peace treaty with Russia. This was stated by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov at a briefing on November 29.

He noted that Moscow and Tokyo had previously held talks and had a rich dialog with the previous prime ministers of Japan. Subsequently, it expressed solidarity with states unfriendly to Russia and joined anti-Russian sanctions, Peskov pointed out.

"All this is unfriendly steps, which, of course, at the moment completely prevent any substantive negotiations," the Kremlin spokesman emphasized.

Peskov drew attention to the fact that it was Japan that initiated the "winding down of the dialog."

The day before, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said that Japan would continue to work on solving the territorial problem and concluding a peace treaty with Russia.

Earlier, on November 24, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said that Russia has to continue its tough response to Japan's anti-Russian moves. He added that Russia is always ready for normalization of relations and resumption of mutually beneficial cooperation on condition of "real and backed by practical steps official refusal of Tokyo's unfriendly policy."

A peace treaty between Russia and Japan was never signed after the end of World War II, in which Japan sided with Germany. Thus, in 1956, Japan and the USSR signed a joint declaration, according to which Moscow agreed to consider the transfer of Habomai and Shikotan to Tokyo, but for this it was necessary to conclude a peace treaty. At the same time, Japan itself did not give up its claims to all the islands of the Kuril Ridge.

The countries failed to reach an understanding on this issue. At the moment, the Russian leadership's position is that Russia's sovereignty over the islands of Habomai and Shikotan is inviolable.