Moscow maintains that the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty transferring control of the islands to the Soviet Union stipulates Russian sovereignty over the Kurils, which Tokyo classifies as its northern territories.
“We aren’t doing this and we won’t do this, we won’t give the Kuril Islands and we won’t beg Japan for a peace agreement,” Lavrov said during a live linkup on kp.ru.
After a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier in May, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that he suggested a new approach to Kuril Islands` dispute.
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