Cape Stolbchaty on the West of the island of Kunashir
The claims of Japan that followed the Russian government’s decision to assign names to several Islands in the Kuril chain, incorrect and untimely. This opinion in an interview with “Tape.ru” stated the Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on international Affairs Vladimir Jabbarov on Tuesday, February 14.
He stressed that the name of the Islands is exclusively a domestic matter. “Who prevented Tokyo to give names [to the territories], when these Islands were under the jurisdiction of Japan, about a hundred years ago? It is not enough that we started to say: don’t call a street or a village like that name. This is incorrect, a sovereign Russian territory!” — said dzhabarov.
Earlier Tuesday, the Secretary-General of the Cabinet of Ministers of Japan Acehide Suga said that Tokyo has sent a protest to Moscow over the naming of five unnamed Islands in the Kuril chain. He stressed that the incident “is unacceptable and contradicts Japan’s position”.
Official Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, commenting on the reaction of Tokyo, said that Russia “appreciates the new positive momentum” in bilateral relations, but stressed that Russia has the right to assign names to the Kuril Islands, because they are part of its territory.
On 11 February, the Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree according to which the Islands were named after Lieutenant General Kuzma Derevyanko, diplomat Andrei Gromyko, former Governor of Sakhalin Igor Farkhutdinov, the General-Lieutenant Alexey Gnecco and captain Anna Shchetinina.
Following the end of world war II between Moscow and Tokyo never signed a peace Treaty. The main obstacle to the signing of the document is the unresolved dispute over the southern Kuril Islands, namely the largest Islands: Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai group.