Japan's Move Halts Bilateral Territorial Talks: Russia's Putin

Moscow, April 16 (Jiji Press)--Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Moscow is ready to hold territorial talks with Japan but that Tokyo's move has effectively halted such talks. Russia's annexation of Crimea in March last year has not changed its approach in relations with Japan over a possible peace treaty or a territorial issue, Putin told reporters after attending a TV program, indicating the Crimea issue does not affect bilateral talks over four Russian-held northwestern Pacific islands off Japan's northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido. The dispute over the islands claimed by Japan has prevented the two countries from concluding a peace treaty. Putin agreed in talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last November that the two sides would prepare for his visit to Japan at an appropriate time this year. However, sanctions by Japan, the United States and Europe against Russia after the Crimea annexation have stalled relations between Tokyo and Moscow. Putin apparently blamed Japan for soured relations but tried to rule out the view that Russian people's patriotic sentiment raised by the Crimea annexation has an adverse impact on territorial talks between the two countries. The Russian president has invited Abe to attend a ceremony in Moscow on May 9 to mark the 70th anniversary of the former Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany, but the Japanese side has yet to give a reply on whether Abe will join. In the TV program, Putin criticized that the United States had exerted pressure on countries which do not plan to attend the ceremony. END