Which two islands does Japan claim? Stumbling Islands: Will Russia Give up the Southern Kuril Islands to Japan?

Illustration copyright RIA Image caption Before Putin and Abe, the issue of signing a peace treaty between Russia and Japan was discussed by all their predecessors - to no avail

During a two-day visit to Nagato and Tokyo, the Russian president will agree with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on investments. The main question - the ownership of the Kuril Islands - will, as usual, be postponed indefinitely, experts say.

Abe became the second G7 leader to host Putin after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.

The visit was supposed to take place two years ago, but was canceled due to sanctions against Russia, supported by Japan.

What is the essence of the dispute between Japan and Russia?

Abe is making progress in a long-standing territorial dispute in which Japan claims the islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan, as well as the Habomai archipelago (there is no such name in Russia; the archipelago and Shikotan are united under the name of the Lesser Kuril Ridge).

The Japanese elite understands perfectly well that Russia will never return the two large islands, so they are ready to take the maximum - two small ones. But how can we explain to society that they are abandoning large islands forever? Alexander Gabuev, expert at the Carnegie Moscow Center

At the end of World War II, in which Japan fought on the side of Nazi Germany, the USSR expelled 17 thousand Japanese from the islands; A peace treaty was never signed between Moscow and Tokyo.

The San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1951 between the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition and Japan established the sovereignty of the USSR over South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, but Tokyo and Moscow never agreed on what to mean by the Kuril Islands.

Tokyo considers Iturup, Kunashir and Habomai to be its illegally occupied “northern territories”. Moscow considers these islands part of the Kuril Islands and has repeatedly stated that their current status is not subject to revision.

In 2016, Shinzo Abe flew to Russia twice (to Sochi and Vladivostok), and he and Putin also met at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima.

In early December, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow and Tokyo have similar positions on the peace treaty. In an interview with Japanese journalists, Vladimir Putin called the lack of a peace treaty with Japan an anachronism that “must be eliminated.”

He also said that the foreign ministries of the two countries need to resolve “purely technical issues” between themselves so that the Japanese have the opportunity to visit the southern Kuril Islands without visas.

However, Moscow is embarrassed that if the southern Kuril Islands are returned, US military bases may appear there. The head of the National Security Council of Japan, Shotaro Yachi, did not rule out this possibility in a conversation with Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, the Japanese newspaper Asahi wrote on Wednesday.

Should we wait for the Kuriles to return?

The short answer is no. “We should not expect any breakthrough agreements, or even ordinary ones, on the issue of ownership of the southern Kuril Islands,” says former Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Kunadze.

“The expectations of the Japanese side, as usual, are at odds with Russia’s intentions,” Kunadze said in an interview with the BBC. “In the last days before leaving for Japan, President Putin repeatedly said that for Russia the problem of belonging to the Kuril Islands does not exist, that the Kuril Islands are , in essence, a military trophy following the results of the Second World War, and even that Russia’s rights to the Kuril Islands are secured by international treaties.”

The latter, according to Kunadze, is a controversial issue and depends on the interpretation of these treaties.

“Putin is referring to the agreements reached in Yalta in February 1945. These agreements were of a political nature and required appropriate legal formalization. It took place in San Francisco in 1951. The Soviet Union did not sign a peace treaty with Japan at that time. Therefore “, there is no other consolidation of Russia’s rights in the territories that Japan renounced under the San Francisco Treaty,” the diplomat sums up.

“The parties are trying to deflate the public’s mutual expectations as much as possible and show that a breakthrough will not happen,” comments Carnegie Moscow Center expert Alexander Gabuev.

“Russia’s red line: Japan recognizes the results of World War II, renounces claims to the southern Kuril Islands. As a gesture of goodwill, we are transferring two small islands to Japan, and on Kunashir and Iturup we can make visa-free entry, a free zone for joint economic development - everything that whatever," he believes. "Russia cannot give up two large islands, because it would be a loss, these islands are of economic importance, a lot of money has been invested there, there is a large population, the straits between these islands are used by Russian submarines when they go out to patrol the Pacific Ocean" .

Japan, according to Gabuev’s observations, has softened its position on the disputed territories in recent years.

“The Japanese elite understands perfectly well that Russia will never return two large islands, so they are ready to take a maximum of two small ones. But how can they explain to society that they are abandoning the large islands forever? Japan is looking for options in which it takes the small ones and retains its claim to large. For Russia this is unacceptable, we want to resolve the issue once and for all. These two red lines are not yet so close that a breakthrough can be expected,” the expert believes.

What else will be discussed?

The Kuril Islands are not the only topic that Putin and Abe discuss. Russia needs foreign investment in the Far East.

According to the Japanese publication Yomiuri, trade turnover between the two countries has decreased due to sanctions. Thus, imports from Russia to Japan decreased by 27.3% - from 2.61 trillion yen ($23 billion) in 2014 to 1.9 trillion yen ($17 billion) in 2015. And exports to Russia increased by 36.4% - from 972 billion yen ($8.8 billion) in 2014 to 618 billion yen ($5.6 billion) in 2015.

The Japanese government intends, through the state oil, gas and metals corporation JOGMEC, to acquire part of the gas fields of the Russian company Novatek, as well as part of the shares of Rosneft.

It is expected that dozens of commercial agreements will be signed during the visit, and the working breakfast of the Russian President and the Japanese Prime Minister will be attended, in particular, by the head of Rosatom Alexey Likhachev, the head of Gazprom Alexey Miller, the head of Rosneft Igor Sechin, the head of the Russian Direct Fund investments Kirill Dmitriev, entrepreneurs Oleg Deripaska and Leonid Mikhelson.

So far, Russia and Japan are only exchanging pleasantries. Based on whether at least part of the economic memoranda is implemented, it will become clear whether they can still agree on something.

The conflict over the Kuril Islands began long before World War II.

The dispute over the southernmost Kuril Islands - Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai - has been a point of tension between Japan and Russia since they were captured by the Soviet Union in 1945. More than 70 years later, Russian-Japanese relations are still not normal due to the ongoing territorial dispute. To a large extent, it was historical factors that prevented the solution of this issue. These include demographics, mentality, institutions, geography and economics—all of which encourage tough policies rather than compromise. The first four factors contribute to the continuation of the impasse, while the economy in the form of oil policy is associated with some hope of resolution.

Russia's claims to the Kuril Islands date back to the 17th century, resulting from periodic contacts with Japan through Hokkaido. In 1821, a de facto border was established, according to which Iturup became Japanese territory, and Russian land began with the island of Urup. Subsequently, according to the Treaty of Shimoda (1855) and the Treaty of St. Petersburg (1875), all four islands were recognized as Japanese territory. The last time the Kuril Islands changed their owner was as a result of World War II - in 1945 in Yalta, the Allies essentially agreed to transfer these islands to Russia.

The dispute over the islands became part of Cold War politics during the negotiations for the San Francisco Peace Treaty, Article 2c of which forced Japan to renounce all its claims to the Kuril Islands. However, the Soviet Union's refusal to sign this agreement left these islands in a state of uncertainty. In 1956, a joint Soviet-Japanese declaration was signed, which de facto meant the end of the state of war, but could not resolve the territorial conflict. After the ratification of the US-Japan Security Treaty in 1960, further negotiations ceased, and this continued until the 1990s.

However, after the end of the Cold War in 1991, a new opportunity to resolve this issue seemed to arise. Despite the turbulent events in world affairs, the positions of Japan and Russia on the Kuril Islands issue have not undergone much change since 1956, and the reason for this situation was five historical factors outside the Cold War.

The first factor is demographic. Japan's population is already declining due to low birth rates and aging, while Russia's population has been declining since 1992 due to excess alcohol consumption and other social ills. This shift, coupled with the weakening of international influence, has led to the emergence of backward-looking trends, and both nations are now largely trying to resolve the issue by looking back rather than forward. Given these attitudes, it can be concluded that the aging populations of Japan and Russia are making it impossible for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Vladimir Putin to negotiate due to their deeply entrenched views on the Kuril Islands issue.

Context

Is Russia ready to return the two islands?

Military construction in the Kuril Islands

Is it possible to agree on the Kuril Islands?

The perception of Japan in Russia was largely shaped by the issue of the Kuril Islands, and this continued until the end of the Cold War. Anti-Japanese propaganda became common after the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, and it was intensified by Japanese intervention during the Russian Civil War (1918–1922). This led many Russians to believe that as a result, all previously concluded treaties were annulled. However, Russia's victory over Japan in World War II ended the previous humiliation and strengthened the symbolic significance of the Kuril Islands, which came to represent (1) the irreversibility of the results of World War II and (2) Russia's status as a great power. From this point of view, the transfer of territory is seen as a revision of the outcome of the war. Therefore, control of the Kuril Islands remains of great psychological importance for the Russians.

Japan is trying to define its place in the world as a “normal” state, located next to an increasingly powerful China. The issue of the return of the Kuril Islands is directly related to the national identity of Japan, and these territories themselves are perceived as the last symbol of defeat in World War II. The Russian offensive and seizure of Japan's "inalienable territory" contributed to the victim mentality that became the dominant narrative after the end of the war.

This attitude is reinforced by Japan's conservative media, which often supports the government's foreign policies. In addition, nationalists often use the media to viciously attack academics and politicians who hint at the possibility of compromise on the issue, leaving little room for maneuver.

This, in turn, influences the political institutions of both Japan and Russia. In the 1990s, President Boris Yeltsin's position was so weak that he feared possible impeachment if the Kuril Islands were transferred to Japan. At the same time, the central Russian government was weakened as a result of the growing influence of regional politicians, including two governors of the Sakhalin region - Valentin Fedorov (1990 - 1993) and Igor Fakhrutdinov (1995 - 2003), who actively opposed the possible sale of the Kuril Islands to Japan. They relied on nationalist feelings, and this was enough to prevent the completion of the treaty and its implementation in the 1990s.

Since President Putin came to power, Moscow has brought regional governments under its influence, but other institutional factors have also contributed to the stalemate. One example is the idea that a situation must mature before some issue or problem can be resolved. During the initial period of his rule, President Putin had the opportunity, but did not have the desire, to negotiate with Japan over the Kuril Islands. Instead, he decided to spend his time and energy trying to resolve the Sino-Russian border conflict through the issue of the Kuril Islands.

Since returning to the presidency in 2013, Putin has become increasingly dependent on the support of nationalist forces, and it is unlikely that he will be willing to cede the Kuril Islands in any meaningful sense. Recent events in Crimea and Ukraine clearly demonstrate how far Putin is willing to go to protect Russia's national status.

Japanese political institutions, although they differ from Russian ones, also support a tough course of action in negotiations regarding the Kuril Islands. As a result of reforms carried out after the end of World War II, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) occupies a dominant position in Japan. With the exception of the period from 1993 to 1995 and from 2009 to 2012, the LDP has had and continues to have a majority in the national legislative assembly, and in fact its party platform on the return of the four southern islands of the Kuril chain has been an integral part of national policy since 1956.

Moreover, as a result of the 1990-1991 real estate crash, the Liberal Democratic Party has produced only two effective prime ministers, Koizumi Junichiro and Shinzo Abe, both of whom rely on nationalist support to maintain their positions. Finally, regional politics plays an important role in Japan, and elected politicians on the island of Hokkaido are pushing the central government to take an assertive stance in the dispute. Taken together, all these factors are not conducive to reaching a compromise that would include the return of all four islands.

Sakhalin and Hokkaido emphasize the importance of geography and regional interests in this dispute. Geography influences how people see the world and how they observe policy formation and implementation. Russia's most important interests are in Europe, followed by the Middle East and Central Asia, and only after that Japan. Here is one example: Russia devotes a significant part of its time and effort to the issue of NATO expansion to the east, into the eastern part of Europe, as well as the negative consequences associated with the events in Crimea and Ukraine. As for Japan, for it the alliance with the United States, China and the Korean Peninsula have a higher priority than relations with Moscow. The Japanese government must also heed public pressure to resolve issues with North Korea over kidnapping and nuclear weapons, which Abe has promised to do several times. As a result, the issue of the Kuril Islands is often relegated to the background.

Probably the only factor contributing to a possible resolution of the Kuril Islands issue is economic interests. After 1991, both Japan and Russia entered a period of prolonged economic crisis. The Russian economy hit its lowest point during its currency crisis in 1997, and is currently facing serious difficulties due to the collapse of oil prices and economic sanctions. However, the development of oil and gas fields in Siberia, during which Japanese capital and Russian natural resources are combined, contributes to cooperation and the possible resolution of the issue of the Kuril Islands. Despite the sanctions imposed, 8% of Japan's oil consumption in 2014 was imported from Russia, and the increase in oil and natural gas consumption is largely due to the consequences of the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Taken together, historical factors largely determine the continued stagnation in resolving the issue of the Kuril Islands. Demographics, geography, political institutions, and the attitudes of Japanese and Russian citizens all contribute to a tough negotiating position. Oil policy provides some incentives for both nations to resolve disputes and normalize relations. However, this has not yet been enough to break the deadlock. Despite the possible change of leaders around the world, the main factors that have driven this dispute to an impasse will most likely remain unchanged.

Michael Bacalu is a member of the Council on Asian Affairs. He received a master's degree in international relations from Seoul University, South Korea, and a bachelor's degree in history and political science from Arcadia University. The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author as an individual and do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization with which he has an association.

InoSMI materials contain assessments exclusively of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the InoSMI editorial staff.

TASS DOSSIER. On December 15, 2016, the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Japan begins. It is expected that one of the topics during his negotiations with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be the issue of ownership of the Kuril Islands.

Currently, Japan is making territorial claims to the Russian islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and a group of small islands of the Lesser Kuril chain (Japanese name Habomai).

The editors of TASS-DOSSIER have prepared material about the history of this problem and attempts to solve it.

Background

The Kuril Archipelago is a chain of islands between Kamchatka and the Japanese island of Hokkaido. It is formed by two ridges. The largest of the islands of the Great Kuril chain are Iturup, Paramushir, Kunashir. The largest island of the Lesser Kuril ridge is Shikotan.

The islands were originally inhabited by Ainu tribes. The first information about the Kuril Islands was obtained by the Japanese during the expedition of 1635-1637. In 1643 they were surveyed by the Dutch (led by Martin de Vries). The first Russian expedition (led by V.V. Atlasov) reached the northern part of the Kuril Islands in 1697. In 1786, by decree of Catherine II, the Kuril Archipelago was included in the Russian Empire.

On February 7, 1855, Japan and Russia signed the Treaty of Shimoda, according to which Iturup, Kunashir and the islands of the Lesser Kuril Ridge were transferred to Japan, and the rest of the Kuril Islands were recognized as Russian. Sakhalin was declared a joint possession - an "undivided" territory. However, some unresolved issues about the status of Sakhalin led to conflicts between Russian and Japanese merchants and sailors. The contradictions between the parties were resolved in 1875 with the signing of the St. Petersburg Treaty on the Exchange of Territories. In accordance with it, Russia transferred all the Kuril Islands to Japan, and Japan renounced its claims to Sakhalin.

On September 5, 1905, as a result of the Russo-Japanese War, the Portsmouth Peace Treaty was signed, according to which part of Sakhalin south of the 50th parallel came into the possession of Japan.

Return of the islands

At the final stage of World War II, during the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the USSR named the return of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands among the conditions for the start of hostilities against Japan. This decision was enshrined in the Yalta Agreement between the USSR, the USA and Great Britain of February 11, 1945 (“Crimean Agreement of the Three Great Powers on Far East Issues”). On August 9, 1945, the USSR entered the war against Japan. From August 18 to September 1, 1945, Soviet troops carried out the Kuril landing operation, which led to the surrender of the Japanese garrisons on the archipelago.

On September 2, 1945, Japan signed the Act of Unconditional Surrender, accepting the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. According to the document, Japanese sovereignty was limited to the islands of Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku and Hokkaido, as well as smaller islands of the Japanese archipelago.

On January 29, 1946, the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces in Japan, American General Douglas MacArthur, notified the Japanese government of the exclusion of the Kuril Islands from the country's territory. On February 2, 1946, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Kuril Islands were included in the USSR.

According to the San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1951, concluded between the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition and Japan, Tokyo renounced all rights, legal grounds and claims to the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. However, the Soviet delegation did not sign this document, since it did not stipulate the issue of the withdrawal of occupation forces from Japanese territory. In addition, the agreement did not specify which islands of the Kuril archipelago were discussed and in whose favor Japan was abandoning them.

This became the main reason for the existing territorial problem, which is still the main obstacle to concluding a peace treaty between Russia and Japan.

The essence of the disagreement

The principled position of the USSR and Russia was and is that “the belonging of the southern Kuril Islands (Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai) to the Russian Federation is based on the generally accepted results of the Second World War and the unshakable post-war international legal framework, including the UN Charter. Thus, Russian sovereignty over them has the appropriate international legal form and is not subject to doubt" (statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry dated February 7, 2015).

Japan, citing the Shimoda Treaty of 1855, claims that Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and a number of small islands never belonged to the Russian Empire and considers their inclusion in the USSR illegal. In addition, according to the Japanese side, these islands are not part of the Kuril archipelago and therefore they do not fall under the term “Kuril Islands”, which was used in the San Francisco Treaty of 1951. Currently, in Japanese political terminology, the disputed islands are usually called " northern territories."

Declaration of 1956

In 1956, the USSR and Japan concluded a Joint Declaration, which formally declared the end of the war and restored bilateral diplomatic relations. In it, the USSR agreed to transfer the island of Shikotan and the uninhabited islands to Japan (reserving Iturup and Kunashir) after concluding a full-fledged peace treaty. The declaration was ratified by the parliaments of two states.

However, in 1960, the Japanese government agreed to sign a security treaty with the United States, which provided for the maintenance of the American military presence on Japanese territory. In response, the USSR annulled the obligations assumed in 1956. At the same time, the Soviet Union stipulated the transfer of the islands by Japan fulfilling two conditions - the signing of a peace treaty and the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country's territory.

Until the early 1990s. the Soviet side did not mention the 1956 declaration, although Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka tried to return to discussing it during a visit to Moscow in 1973 (the first Soviet-Japanese summit).

Intensification of dialogue in the 1990s.

The situation began to change with the beginning of perestroika in the 1980s, the USSR recognized the existence of a territorial problem. Following the visit of USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev to Japan in April 1991, the joint communiqué included a provision on the parties’ intention to continue negotiations on the normalization of relations and a peaceful settlement, including territorial issues.

The existence of a territorial problem was also confirmed in the Tokyo Declaration, signed following negotiations between Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa in October 1993. The document recorded the parties’ desire to resolve the issue of the territorial ownership of the disputed islands.

In the Moscow Declaration (November 1998), President Yeltsin and Premier Keizo Obuchi "reaffirmed their determination to make every effort to conclude a peace treaty by the year 2000." Then the Russian side for the first time expressed the opinion that it was necessary to create conditions and a favorable atmosphere for “joint economic and other activities” in the South Kuril Islands without prejudice to the legal positions of both parties.

Modern stage

In 2008, Japanese politicians began to introduce the term “illegally occupied northern territories” in relation to the islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai. In June 2009, the Japanese Parliament adopted amendments to the Law on Special Measures to Promote the Solution of the “Northern Territories Problem,” according to which Japanese government agencies are ordered to make every effort to return the “ancestral lands of Japan” as quickly as possible.

Visits to the islands by senior Russian officials cause a negative reaction in Tokyo (Dmitry Medvedev visited the islands in 2010 as president, in 2012 and 2015 as chairman of the government; the first two times he was in Kunashir, the last in Iturup). Japanese leaders periodically make “inspections of the northern territories” from an airplane or boat (the first such inspection was made by Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki in 1981).

The territorial issue is regularly discussed at Russian-Japanese negotiations. It was raised especially often by the administration of Shinzo Abe, who again took the post of Prime Minister in 2012. However, it has still not been possible to finally bring the positions closer together.

In March 2012, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that on the territorial issue it is necessary to “achieve an acceptable compromise or something like “hikiwake” (“draw”, a term from judo). In May 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister -Japanese Minister Shinzo Abe agreed on the need to develop dialogue in a “constructive manner, without emotional outbursts or public polemics” and agreed on a “new approach” to solving bilateral problems, but the details of the agreements were not reported.

To the roots of the problem

One of the first documents regulating Russian-Japanese relations was the Treaty of Shimoda, signed on January 26, 1855. According to the second article of the treatise, the border was established between the islands of Urup and Iturup - that is, all four now islands that Japan claims today were recognized as the possession of Japan.

Since 1981, the day of the conclusion of the Shimoda Treaty in Japan has been celebrated as “Northern Territories Day”. Another thing is that, relying on the Shimoda Treaty as one of the fundamental documents, Japan forgets about one important point. In 1904, Japan, having attacked the Russian squadron in Port Arthur and unleashed the Russo-Japanese War, itself violated the terms of the treaty, which provided for friendship and good neighborly relations between states.

The Shimoda Treaty did not determine the ownership of Sakhalin, where both Russian and Japanese settlements were located, and by the mid-70s a solution to this issue was ripe. The St. Petersburg Treaty was signed, which was assessed ambiguously by both sides. Under the terms of the agreement, all the Kuril Islands were now completely transferred to Japan, and Russia received full control over Sakhalin.

Then, as a result of the Russo-Japanese War, according to the Treaty of Portsmouth, the southern part of Sakhalin up to the 50th parallel went to Japan.

In 1925, a Soviet-Japanese convention was signed in Beijing, which generally confirmed the terms of the Portsmouth Treaty. As you know, the late 30s and early 40s were extremely tense in Soviet-Japanese relations and were associated with a series of military conflicts of varying scales.

The situation began to change by 1945, when the Axis powers began to suffer heavy defeats and the prospect of losing World War II became increasingly clear. Against this background, the question of the post-war world order arose. Thus, according to the terms of the Yalta Conference, the USSR pledged to enter the war against Japan, and Southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands were transferred to the Soviet Union.

True, at the same time the Japanese leadership was ready to voluntarily cede these territories in exchange for the neutrality of the USSR and the supply of Soviet oil. The USSR did not take such a very slippery step. The defeat of Japan by that time was not a quick matter, but it was still a matter of time. And most importantly, by avoiding decisive action, the Soviet Union would actually be handing the situation in the Far East into the hands of the United States and its allies.

By the way, this also applies to the events of the Soviet-Japanese War and the Kuril Landing Operation itself, which was not initially prepared. When it became known about the preparations for the landing of American troops on the Kuril Islands, the Kuril landing operation was urgently prepared within 24 hours. Fierce fighting in August 1945 ended with the surrender of the Japanese garrisons in the Kuril Islands.

Fortunately, the Japanese command did not know the real number of Soviet paratroopers and, without fully using their overwhelming numerical superiority, capitulated. At the same time, the Yuzhno-Sakhalin offensive operation was carried out. Thus, at the cost of considerable losses, Southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands became part of the USSR.

(currently the Frieza Strait). De Vries mistakenly considered Iturup Island to be the northeastern tip of Hokkaido, and Urup to be part of the American continent. On June 20, Dutch sailors landed on Urup for the first time. On 23 June 1643, de Vries erected a wooden cross on the flat top of a high mountain on the island of Urupa and declared the land the property of the Dutch East India Company.

In Russia, the first official mention of the Kuril Islands dates back to 1646, when the Cossack Nekhoroshko Ivanovich Kolobov, a participant in Ivan Moskvitin’s expedition to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk (Lama) spoke about the bearded Ainu inhabiting the islands. New information about the Kuril Islands appeared after Vladimir Atlasov's campaign against Kamchatka in 1697, during which the Russians first saw the northern Kuril Islands from the southwestern coast of Kamchatka. In August 1711, a detachment of Kamchatka Cossacks under the leadership of Danila Antsiferov and Ivan Kozyrevsky first landed on the northernmost island of Shumshu, defeating a detachment of local Ainu here, and then on the second island of the ridge - Paramushir.

In 1738-1739, a scientific expedition took place under the leadership of the captain of the Russian fleet, Martyn Petrovich Shpanberg. This expedition was the first to map the Lesser Kuril Ridge (Shikotan and Habomai islands). Based on the results of the expedition, the atlas “General Map of Russia” was compiled depicting the 40 islands of the Kuril archipelago. After news of the discovery of the Kuril Islands by Russian navigators was published in Europe in the 1740s, the governments of other powers sought permission from the Russian authorities to visit the islands of this area with their ships. In 1772, Russian authorities placed the Kuril Islands under the control of the chief commander of Kamchatka, and in 1786, Empress Catherine II issued a decree on the protection (“preservation”) of rights to “lands discovered by Russian sailors,” among which was the “ridge of the Kuril Islands, concerning Japan". This decree was published in foreign languages. After publication, not a single state challenged Russia’s rights to the Kuril Islands. State cross signs and copper plaques with the inscription “Land of Russian Dominion” were installed on the islands.

19th century

General Map of the State of Japan, 1809

On February 7, 1855, Japan and Russia signed the first Russian-Japanese treaty - the Shimoda Treaty on Trade and Borders. The document established the border of the countries between the islands of Iturup and Urup. The islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai group of islands went to Japan, and the rest were recognized as Russian possessions. That is why February 7 has been celebrated annually in Japan as Northern Territories Day since 1981. At the same time, questions about the status of Sakhalin remained unresolved, which led to conflicts between Russian and Japanese merchants and sailors.

Russo-Japanese War

Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands on a map of 1912

On February 2, 1946, in accordance with the Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces, the South Sakhalin Region was formed in these territories as part of the Khabarovsk Territory of the RSFSR, which on January 2, 1947 became part of the newly formed Sakhalin Region as part of the RSFSR.

History of ownership of the Kuril Islands under Russian-Japanese treaties

Joint Declaration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Japan (1956). Article 9.

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Japan agreed to continue negotiations on concluding a Peace Treaty after the restoration of normal diplomatic relations between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Japan.

At the same time, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, meeting the wishes of Japan and taking into account the interests of the Japanese state, agrees to the transfer to Japan of the islands of Habomai and the island of Shikotan with the fact that the actual transfer of these islands to Japan will be made after the conclusion of the Peace Treaty between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Japan .

On January 19, 1960, Japan signed the Treaty on Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan with the United States, thereby extending the “Security Pact” signed on September 8, 1951, which was the legal basis for the presence of American troops on Japanese territory. On January 27, 1960, the USSR stated that since this agreement was directed against the USSR and the PRC, the Soviet government refused to consider the issue of transferring the islands to Japan, since this would lead to an expansion of the territory used by American troops.

Throughout the second half of the 20th century, the question of the ownership of the southern group of the Kuril islands Iturup, Shikotan, Kunashir and Habomai (in the Japanese interpretation - the question of the “northern territories”) remained the main stumbling block in Japanese-Soviet (later Japanese-Russian) relations. At the same time, until the end of the Cold War, the USSR did not recognize the existence of a territorial dispute with Japan and always considered the southern Kuril Islands as an integral part of its territory.

On April 18, 1991, during a visit to Japan, Mikhail Gorbachev actually acknowledged the existence of a territorial problem for the first time.

In 1993, the Tokyo Declaration on Russian-Japanese relations was signed, which states that Russia is the legal successor of the USSR and all agreements signed between the USSR and Japan will be recognized by both Russia and Japan. The parties’ desire to resolve the issue of the territorial ownership of the four southern islands of the Kuril chain was also recorded, which in Japan was regarded as a success and, to a certain extent, raised hopes of resolving the issue in favor of Tokyo.

XXI Century

On November 14, 2004, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, on the eve of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Japan, stated that Russia, as a successor state of the USSR, recognizes the 1956 Declaration as existing and is ready to conduct territorial negotiations with Japan on its basis. This formulation of the question caused a lively discussion among Russian politicians. Vladimir Putin supported the position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stipulating that Russia “will fulfill all its obligations” only “to the extent that our partners are ready to fulfill these agreements.” Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi responded by saying that Japan was not satisfied with the transfer of only two islands: “If the ownership of all the islands is not determined, the peace treaty will not be signed.” At the same time, the Japanese prime minister promised to show flexibility in determining the timing of the transfer of the islands.

On December 14, 2004, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld expressed his readiness to assist Japan in resolving the dispute with Russia over the southern Kuril Islands.

In 2005, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his readiness to resolve the territorial dispute in accordance with the provisions of the 1956 Soviet-Japanese Declaration, that is, with the transfer of Habomai and Shikotan to Japan, but the Japanese side did not compromise.

On August 16, 2006, a Japanese fishing schooner was detained by Russian border guards. The schooner refused to obey the commands of the border guards, and warning fire was opened on it. During the incident, one member of the schooner's crew was fatally wounded in the head. This caused a sharp protest from the Japanese side; it demanded the immediate release of the body of the deceased and the release of the crew. Both sides said the incident occurred in their own territorial waters. In 50 years of dispute over the islands, this is the first recorded death.

December 13, 2006. The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Taro Aso, at a meeting of the foreign policy committee of the lower house of representatives of parliament spoke in favor of dividing the southern part of the disputed Kuril Islands in half with Russia. There is a point of view that in this way the Japanese side hopes to solve a long-standing problem in Russian-Japanese relations. However, immediately after Taro Aso’s statement, the Japanese Foreign Ministry disavowed his words, emphasizing that they were misinterpreted.

On July 2, 2007, to reduce tensions between the two countries, Japanese Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki proposed, and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Naryshkin accepted Japan's proposals for assistance in the development of the Far Eastern region. It is planned to develop nuclear energy, lay optical Internet cables through Russian territory to connect Europe and Asia, develop infrastructure, as well as cooperation in the field of tourism, ecology and security. This proposal was previously considered in June 2007 at a G8 meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On May 21, 2009, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, during a meeting of the upper house of parliament, called the southern Kuril Islands “illegally occupied territories” and said that he was waiting for Russia to propose approaches to solving this problem. The official representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Andrei Nesterenko, commented on this statement as “illegal” and “politically incorrect.”

On June 11, 2009, the lower house of the Japanese parliament approved amendments to the law “On special measures to promote the resolution of the issue of the Northern Territories and similar ones,” which contain a provision on Japan’s ownership of the four islands of the South Kuril ridge. The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement in which it called such actions by the Japanese side inappropriate and unacceptable. On June 24, 2009, a State Duma statement was published, which, in particular, stated the opinion of the State Duma that in the current conditions, efforts to resolve the problem of a peace treaty, in fact, have lost both political and practical perspective and will make sense only in case of disavowal of amendments adopted by Japanese parliamentarians. On July 3, 2009, the amendments were approved by the Upper House of the Japanese Diet.

On September 14, 2009, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said that he hoped to make progress in negotiations with Russia on the southern Kuril Islands "in the next six months to a year."

On September 23, 2009, at a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Hatoyama spoke of his desire to resolve the territorial dispute and conclude a peace treaty with Russia.

February 7, 2010. On February 7, since 1982, Japan has celebrated Northern Territories Day (as the southern Kuril Islands are called). Cars with loudspeakers are running around Tokyo, from which demands for the return of four islands to Japan and the music of military marches are heard. Also an event of this day is the speech of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to participants in the movement for the return of the northern territories. This year, Hatoyama said that Japan was not satisfied with the return of only two islands and that he would make every effort to return all four islands within the lifetime of current generations. He also noted that it is very important for Russia to be friends with such an economically and technologically developed country as Japan. The words that these were “illegally occupied territories” were not said.

On April 1, 2010, official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Andrei Nesterenko made a comment in which he announced the approval on April 1 by the Government of Japan of changes and additions to the so-called. “The main course to promote the solution of the problem of the northern territories” and stated that the repetition of unfounded territorial claims against Russia cannot benefit the dialogue on the issue of concluding a Russian-Japanese peace treaty, as well as maintaining normal contacts between the southern Kuril Islands, which are part of the Sakhalin regions of Russia, and Japan.

On September 11, 2011, Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev visited the southern Kuril Islands, where he held a meeting with the leadership of the Sakhalin region, and visited the border post on Tanfilyev Island, closest to Japan. At the meeting in the village of Yuzhno-Kurilsk on Kunashir Island, issues of ensuring the security of the region, the progress of construction of civil and border infrastructure facilities were discussed, security issues were considered during the construction and operation of the port berthing complex in Yuzhno-Kurilsk and the reconstruction of Mendeleevo airport. Japanese Government Secretary General Osamu Fujimura said that Nikolai Patrushev's visit to the southern Kuril Islands deeply regrets Japan.

On February 14, 2012, the Chief of the Russian General Staff of the Armed Forces, Army General Nikolai Makarov, announced that the Russian Ministry of Defense would create two military camps on the southern Kuril Islands (Kunashir and Iturup) in 2013.

On October 26, 2017, First Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federation Council Committee on Defense and Security Franz Klintsevich said that Russia plans to create a naval base on the Kuril Islands.

Russia's basic position

The position of both countries on the issue of ownership of the islands. Russia considers all of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands its territory. Japan considers the southern Kuril Islands its territory, the northern Kuril Islands and Sakhalin - the territory of Russia.

Moscow’s principled position is that the southern Kuril Islands became part of the USSR, of which Russia became the legal successor, are an integral part of the territory of the Russian Federation legally following the Second World War and enshrined in the UN Charter, and Russian sovereignty over them, which has the corresponding international -legal confirmation is beyond doubt. According to media reports, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation in 2012 said that the problem of the Kuril Islands could be solved in Russia only by holding a referendum. Subsequently, the Russian Foreign Ministry officially denied raising the question of any referendum: “This is a gross distortion of the minister’s words. We regard such interpretations as provocative. No sane politician would ever put this issue to a referendum." In addition, the Russian authorities once again officially declared the unconditional indisputability of the ownership of the islands by Russia, stating that in connection with this, the question of any referendum cannot by definition arise. On February 18, 2014, the Russian Foreign Minister stated that “Russia does not consider the situation with Japan on the issue of borders as some kind of territorial dispute.” The Russian Federation, the minister explained, proceeds from the reality that there are generally recognized and enshrined in the UN Charter results of the Second World War. On August 22, 2015, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, in connection with his visit to Iturup Island, formulated Russia’s position, stating that the Kuril Islands “are part of the Russian Federation, they are part of a subject of the Russian Federation called the Sakhalin Region, and therefore we have visited, are visiting and will visit the Kuril Islands.”

Japan's Basic Position

Japan's basic position on this issue is formulated in four points:

(1) The Northern Territories are centuries-old Japanese territories that continue to be under illegal Russian occupation. The government of the United States of America also consistently supports Japan's position.

(2) To resolve this issue and conclude a peace treaty as quickly as possible, Japan is vigorously continuing negotiations with Russia on the basis of agreements already reached, such as the 1956 Japan-Soviet Joint Declaration, the 1993 Tokyo Declaration, the 2001 Irkutsk Declaration and the Japanese-Soviet Declaration. Russian action plan 2003.

(3) According to the Japanese position, if it is confirmed that the Northern Territories belong to Japan, Japan is ready to be flexible in the time and procedure for their return. In addition, since Japanese citizens living in the Northern Territories were forcibly evicted by Joseph Stalin, Japan is willing to reach an agreement with the Russian government so that Russian citizens living there will not suffer the same tragedy. In other words, after the return of the islands to Japan, Japan intends to respect the rights, interests and desires of the Russians currently living on the islands.

(4) The Government of Japan has urged the Japanese population not to visit the Northern Territories outside of the visa-free procedure until the territorial dispute is resolved. Likewise, Japan cannot permit any activity, including the economic activity of third parties, that could be considered subject to Russia's “jurisdiction,” nor may it permit any activity that would imply Russia's “jurisdiction” over the Northern Territories. It is Japan's policy to take appropriate measures to prevent such activities.

Original text (English)

Japan's Basic Position

(1) The Northern Territories are inherent territories of Japan that continues to be illegally occupied by Russia. The Government of the United States of America has also consistently supported Japan's position.

(2) In order to solve this issue and to conclude a peace treaty as soon as possible, Japan has energetically continued negotiations with Russia on the basis of the agreements and documents created by the two sides so far, such as the Japan-Soviet Joint Declaration of 1956, the Tokyo Declaration of 1993, the Irkutsk Statement of 2001 and the Japan-Russia Action Plan of 2003.

(3) Japan's position is that if the attribution of the Northern Territories to Japan is confirmed, Japan is prepared to respond flexibly to the timing and manner of their actual return. In addition, since Japanese citizens who once lived in the Northern Territories were forcibly displaced by Joseph Stalin, Japan is ready to forge a settlement with the Russian government so that the Russian citizens living there will not experience the same tragedy. In other words, after the return of the islands to Japan, Japan intends to respect the rights, interests and wishes of the Russian current residents on the islands.

(4) The Japanese government has requested Japanese people not to enter the Northern Territories without using the non-visa visit frameworks until the territorial issue is resolved. Similarly, Japan cannot allow any activities, including economic activities by a third party, which could be regarded as submitting to Russian “jurisdiction,” nor allow any activities carried out under the presumption that Russia has “jurisdiction” in the Northern Territories. Japan is of the policy to take appropriate steps to ensure that this does not happen. .

Original text (Japanese)

日本の基本的立場

⑴北方領土は、ロシアによる不法占拠が続いていますが、日本固有の領土であり、この点については例えば米国政府も一貫して日本の立場を支持しています。政府は、北方四島の帰属の問題を解決して平和条約を締結するという基本的方針に基づいて、ロシア政府との間で強い意思をもって交渉を行っています。

⑵北方領土問題の解決に当たって、我が国としては、1）北方領土の日本への帰属が確認さ北方領土に現在 Home分尊重していくこととしています。

⑶我が国固有の領土である北方領土に対するロシアによる不法占拠が続いている状況の中Homeシア側の「管轄権 」に服したかのごとき行為を行うこと, Home相容れず、 1989 1989 Home することを行わないよう要請しています。

⑷また、政府は、第三国国民がロシアの査証を取得した上で北方四島へ入域する、または第三国企業が北方領土において経済活動を行っているという情報に接した場合、従来から、しかるべく事実関係を確認の上、申入れを行ってきています 。

Other opinions

Defense aspect and the danger of armed conflict

In connection with the territorial dispute over the ownership of the southern Kuril Islands, there is a danger of military conflict with Japan. Currently, the Kuril Islands are defended by the 18th Machine Gun Artillery Division (the only one in Russia), and Sakhalin by a motorized rifle brigade. These formations are armed with 41 T-80 tanks, 120 MT-LB transporters, 20 coastal anti-ship missile systems, 130 artillery systems, 60 anti-aircraft weapons (Buk, Tunguska, Shilka complexes), 6 Mi-8 helicopters.

As stated in the Law of the Sea:

A state has the right to temporarily suspend peaceful passage through certain sections of its territorial waters if this is urgently required by the interests of its security.

However, restricting Russian shipping - except for warships in conflict - in these straits, and even more so introducing a fee, would contradict some provisions of the generally recognized in international law (including that recognized in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which Japan signed and ratified) the right of innocent passage. especially since Japan does not have archipelagic waters [ ] :

If a foreign merchant vessel complies with these requirements, the coastal State must not impede innocent passage through its territorial waters and must take all necessary measures to ensure safe innocent passage - in particular, declare for general information all dangers to navigation known to it. Foreign vessels should not be subject to any passage charges other than fees and charges for services actually rendered, which should be collected without any discrimination.

Further, almost the entire remaining water area of ​​the Sea of ​​Okhotsk freezes and the ports of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk freeze, and, therefore, shipping without icebreakers is still impossible here; La Perouse Strait, connecting the Sea of ​​Okhotsk with the Sea of ​​Japan, is also clogged with ice in winter and is navigable only with the help of icebreakers:

The Sea of ​​Okhotsk has the most severe ice regime. Ice appears here at the end of October and lasts until July. In winter, the entire northern part of the sea is covered with thick floating ice, which in some places freezes into a vast area of ​​stationary ice. The boundary of the stationary fast ice extends out to sea for 40-60 miles. A constant current carries ice from the western regions to the southern part of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. As a result, an accumulation of floating ice forms near the southern islands of the Kuril ridge in winter, and the La Perouse Strait is clogged with ice and is navigable only with the help of icebreakers. .

Moreover, the shortest route from Vladivostok to the Pacific Ocean lies through the ice-free Sangar Strait between the islands of Hokkaido and Honshu. This strait is not covered by Japanese territorial waters, although it can be included in territorial waters unilaterally at any time.

Natural resources

There are areas of possible oil and gas accumulation on the islands. Reserves are estimated at 364 million tons of oil equivalent. In addition, there may be gold on the islands. In June 2011, it became known that Russia was inviting Japan to jointly develop oil and gas fields located in the Kuril Islands area.

The islands are adjacent to a 200-mile fishing zone. Thanks to the South Kuril Islands, this zone covers the entire water area of ​​the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, with the exception of a small coastal area near the island. Hokkaido. Thus, in economic terms, the Sea of ​​Okhotsk is actually an inland sea of ​​Russia with an annual fish catch of about three million tons.

Positions of third countries and organizations

As of 2014, the United States believes that Japan has sovereignty over the disputed islands, while noting that Article 5 of the US-Japan Security Treaty (that an attack on either side in Japanese-administered territory is considered a threat to both sides) does not apply to these islands as not governed by Japan. The position of the Bush Jr. administration was similar. There is debate in the academic literature as to whether the US position was previously different. It is believed that in the 1950s, the sovereignty of the islands was linked to the sovereignty of the Ryukyu Islands, which had a similar legal status. In 2011, the press service of the US Embassy in the Russian Federation noted that this US position has existed for a long time and individual politicians only confirm it.

see also

• Liancourt (islands disputed between Japan and South Korea)
• Senkaku (islands disputed between Japan and China)