Putin spoke about the future of the Kuril Islands if they belonged to Japan
STRELNA, 1 Jul — RIA Novosti. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that if the Kuril Islands were ceded to Japan, there would be the possibility of deployment of U.S. troops.
“Now about the second part (the question), namely the theoretical possibility of deployment of us troops in these Islands, assuming that they’re going to depart under the sovereignty of Japan. Well, Yes, such possibility exists,” Putin said at a meeting with the leadership of the international agencies in the framework of St. Petersburg international economic forum, answering the question of the demilitarization of the Kuril Islands.
According to him, “it follows from the Treaty and protocols…”. “We do not show them, but we generally know their content. I am not going to detail, although these details are known to me. But the possibility of placing on these areas of American troops there”, — said Putin.
He stressed that in General, this situation Russia is not afraid and will not affect relations with the United States.
“Of course, you can ask the question: are we going to worsen relations with the United States, it scares us? No, we are not going to worsen. And we are nothing scary. But we see that now happening in the United States — that this anti-Russian campaign, Russophobia, they continue. How the situation will develop, we do not know. It’s not up to us. We are not the initiators of this process. In these circumstances, even theoretically, to assume that today everything was good, and tomorrow there will be a base of some kind, or items of the same PRO — for us it is absolutely unacceptable,” — said the Russian leader.
Japan claims the Islands of Kunashir, Shikotan, Iturup and Habomai, referring to bilateral Treatise on trade and borders of 1855. The return of the Islands Tokyo made it a condition of signing a peace Treaty with Russia, which after the Second world war and was not signed. In 1956 the USSR and Japan signed a joint Declaration in which Moscow has agreed to consider the possibility of transfer of Japan two Islands in the case of concluding a peace Treaty. The USSR hoped to put on this point, Japan believed a deal is only a part of the solution, not abandoning claims to all the Islands. Subsequent negotiations in what have not resulted. Moscow’s position is that the Islands became part of the Soviet Union at the end of the Second world war and the Russian sovereignty over them cannot be questioned.