Moscow and Tokyo agreed to discuss the peace treaty issue on the basis of the 1956 declaration. However, this historical document makes it possible to interpret its individual points too broadly.. So first you need to eliminate all ambiguities and misunderstandings.. This statement was made by the Russian leader.. The conclusion of the Russian-Japanese peace treaty was once again discussed the day before, at a meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which took place "on the margins" of the ASEAN summit in Singapore. Sixty-two years ago, the USSR and Japan signed a declaration stating that Moscow, after signing a peace treaty, is ready to transfer to Tokyo two southern islands of the Kuril ridge, Putin recalled. However, the document “does not say on what basis to transfer, under whose sovereignty these islands will remain, but the USSR’s readiness to transfer these two islands is fixed”, quotes the president of RIA Novosti. Both countries ratified the document in national parliaments, but then "Japan refused to implement these agreements.". The same decision was later adopted by the Soviet Union.. "Then the Japanese asked us to return to the discussion of these problems within the framework of this declaration, but during the discussion the center of gravity shifted and moved away, essentially, from the 1956 declaration. But yesterday, indeed, during our meeting, the Prime Minister said that Japan would be ready to return to the discussion of the problem on the basis of the 1956 declaration.. "- said the President of the Russian Federation. According to him, this approach requires "a separate, additional serious study, bearing in mind that in the declaration itself, as I said, not everything is clear". Apart from the fact that the agreement did not spell out the basis for the transfer and the subsequent sovereignty of the islands, one should not discount that "once Japan itself refused to implement these agreements," the Russian leader repeated. On the eve of the meeting, the parties stated that they would make every effort to resolve the territorial dispute and conclude a peace treaty. The discussion will continue during the visit of the Japanese prime minister to Russia at the beginning of next year.. However, experts are skeptical about the prospects for concluding a peace treaty and call this problem “unsolvable in principle”. "This problem is related to the results of the Second World War. Practically all the major changes in the Russian-Japanese border took place following the wars..

The border can be changed, as I believe, only by the results of the next war between Russia and Japan, which is absolutely impossible, "said Yuri Tavrovsky, an orientalist, professor at the Russian University of Peoples Friendship, told Novosti.. According to him, the signing of a peace treaty is connected with territorial concessions, and Russia will never agree to this, since it contradicts its national interests.. "Not a single stone in the Kuril Islands will become Japanese in the foreseeable future," the specialist concluded.