The State Duma reacted to the scandal that broke out in Japan over smoking

The issue of the Kuril Islands is closed, they belong to Russia. Alexey Chepa, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, said this on Monday, November 10, reacting to the scandal in Japan over the words of the Minister of Okinawa and the "northern Territories" Hitoshi Kikawada about the Kuril Islands.

"These are our lands. Therefore, the Japanese minister was absolutely right to call these territories a foreign state. It really is. Another thing is populism, which has been actively present in Japan for decades around this issue. This hinders the development of our relations," the deputy said in an interview with Lenta.Ru .

The parliamentarian added that Russia would never use the Kuril Islands as a bargaining chip. However, he added that the agreement, which has not been signed for decades, is necessary.

"The fact that the Japanese government is changing, as they say, speaks volumes about internal difficulties and the fact that each time we have to start the process on the Kuril Islands in a new way. This makes it very difficult to resolve this issue," concluded Chepa.

Earlier, the Secretary General of the Cabinet of Ministers of Japan, Minoru Kihara, censured Kikawade for his statement on November 8, in which the territories of the Kuril Islands disputed by Japan were called foreign, according to the website. kp.ru .

The phrase was interpreted as an allusion to the Kuril Islands belonging to Russia, writes "Moscow 24".

On August 10, Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the President of Russia, said that the territorial affiliation of the Kuril Islands should not be in doubt, RT reports.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova pointed to Japan's refusal to accept the outcome of the settlement of the Kuril Islands issue. She called the statements of the Japanese Foreign Ministry categorically unacceptable. Zakharova also stressed that such rhetoric is unacceptable for a statesman and is unable to change the reality of belonging to the Kurils.

On August 4, the Russian Foreign Ministry protested to the German Embassy in Moscow against the statements of the German Ambassador to Japan, Petra Sigmund, about the Southern Kuril Islands. The ministry called her statements a blatant encroachment on the territorial integrity of Russia.

Prior to that, on January 24, Shigeru Ishiba, who held the post of Prime Minister of Japan at that time, announced the difficult state of relations between Moscow and Tokyo, but the island state still supports the idea of resolving the "territorial issue" and concluding a peace treaty.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.