Putin believes that Americans want to send troops to the Kuril Islands
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that he is "aware" that the Americans are drawing up plans to transfer their military to the Kuril Islands. He voiced such considerations at a meeting with the heads of world news agencies, responding to a question from a correspondent of the Japanese news agency Kyodo.
"As for the theoretic possibility that US troops might emerge on the islands, if we assume that the sovereignty over the islands might be transferred to Japan - yes, such a possibility does exist," he said.
He added that it allegedly "stems from the treaty and, incidentally, from the related protocols", which Russians "are not shown, but…generally know their content by and large."
"I will not discuss the details now, although these details are known to me, but there does exist a possibility of American troops being deployed in these territories ... How the situation will develop, we do not know; this is not up to us, as we are not the initiators of this process. In these conditions, it is even theoretically possible to assume that everything is fine today, and then tomorrow some bases or missile defense components appear; for us, this is absolutely unacceptable," Putin said.
In 1956, the USSR and Japan signed a declaration stipulating that after the conclusion of a peace treaty, Tokyo would receive the islands of Habomai and Shikotan. The idea of transferring the first two islands to Japan was discussed in 2001 at a meeting of Russian and Japanese leaders, but this idea was postponed after the coming to power of Junichiro Koizumi.
Relations between Moscow and Tokyo for many years have been clouded by the absence of a peace treaty. Japan claims the islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai, citing the bilateral Treatise on Trade and the Borders of 1855.
In October 2016, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said that Tokyo sought recognition of Japan's claims to all islands in the southern part of the Kuril Islands in negotiations with the Russian Federation.