https://www.site/2018-11-19/putin_reshil_otdat_kurily_yaponii_v_chem_sut_spora_i_chem_on_zakonchitsya

The endless Russian-Japanese problem

Has Putin decided to give the Kuril Islands to Japan? What is the essence of the dispute and how will it end?

Mikhael Klimentyev/ZUMAPRESS.com, GLP

During the economic forum in Singapore, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Tokyo Prime Minister Shinzo Abe intensified negotiations on signing a peace treaty between Russia and Japan and resolving a territorial dispute that has lasted since the end of World War II. We remind you how it all started and why everyone is so enthusiastically discussing last meeting heads of state.

How the Southern Kuril Islands ended up in Russia

In 1941, the countries of Hitler's coalition declared war on the USSR - all except Japan, which attacked the United States, starting a war in the Pacific. Two years later, in 1943, the Allied powers (USA, UK and China) adopted the Cairo Declaration, which stated that the Allied goal was to dispossess Japan of all the islands in the Pacific that it had captured since the start of the First World War.

In February 1945, at the Yalta Conference, the USSR, USA and Great Britain reached an agreement on the Soviet Union's entry into the war with Japan, provided that after the war Southern Sakhalin And Kurile Islands will fall under the jurisdiction of the USSR.

In April 1945, Vyacheslav Molotov received Japanese Ambassador Naotake Sato and made a statement denouncing the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact.

The Potsdam Declaration of July 26, 1945 states that Japanese sovereignty will be limited to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and those smaller islands that the allies indicate - without mentioning the islands of the Kuril chain.

Russian Look, GLP

On August 8, 1945, exactly three months after the surrender of Germany, the USSR officially declared war on Japan and began military operations against it the next day. The Southern Kuril Islands were occupied by Soviet troops in August-September during the landing operation.

On February 2, 1946, the Yuzhno-Sakhalin Region was formed in these territories as part of the Khabarovsk Territory of the RSFSR, which later became part of the newly formed Sakhalin Region.

Finally, in 1951, a peace treaty between Japan and the Allies was concluded in San Francisco. According to it, Japan renounced its rights to the territories over which it acquired sovereignty under the Treaty of Portsmouth back in 1905.

At the same time, Japan insisted that the islands of Iturup, Shikotan, Kunashir and Habomai were not part of the Kuril Islands and Japan did not abandon them. Representatives of the USSR proposed to amend the treaty to recognize the sovereignty of the USSR over South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, but these proposals were not taken into account. Therefore, the USSR, Poland and Czechoslovakia did not sign the agreement. It so happened that the territorial dispute with Japan dragged on for many decades, because of this, our countries still cannot sign a peace treaty.

1956 Declaration

Instead of signing a peace treaty, the USSR and Japan adopted the Moscow Declaration on October 19, 1956. It ended the state of war and restored diplomatic relations between the two countries, and also recorded the intention of the Soviet Union to transfer to Japan the smallest of the four islands - Shikotan and the Habomai ridge (Habomai is several small islands). The transfer of the islands was to take place after the signing of the peace treaty. The document also envisaged the entry into force of a fishing convention and an agreement on rescuing people in distress at sea.

The countries confirmed that in their relations they would be guided by the principles of the UN Charter and pledged not to interfere directly or indirectly in each other’s internal affairs. The USSR expressed its readiness to support Japan's request for admission to the UN and agreed to release all Japanese citizens convicted in the USSR and repatriate them to Japan.

Simultaneously with the Declaration, a protocol was signed on the development of trade and the mutual provision of most favored nation treatment.

But the United States intervened in the situation: American authorities threatened that if Japan renounced its claims to the islands of Kunashir and Iturup, the Ryukyu archipelago with the island of Okinawa, which, in accordance with the peace treaty signed in San Francisco, was under US control, would not be returned to Japan. The current negotiations have been revived within the framework of this declaration, but more on that later.

Security Treaty with the USA

On January 19, 1960, Japan signed a Cooperation and Security Treaty with the United States. Its essence is the legal justification for the presence of US military bases on Japanese territory. This year Soviet Union recalled that the agreement on American military bases was directed against the USSR, and refused to consider the issue of transferring the islands to Japan.

This further cooled relations between Russia and Japan. Until the end cold war The Soviet authorities refused to return to this issue, declaring the territory of the Southern Kuril Islands as an integral part of their territory.

The issue began to be discussed again along with the collapse of the USSR: on April 18, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev admitted the existence of a territorial problem.

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.

"Zero"

In 2004, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia recognizes the 1956 declaration and is ready to negotiate on its basis. Let us remember that this is a declaration providing for the transfer of two small islands to Japan - Shikotan and Habomai. President Vladimir Putin supported this statement.

However, at that time the tough Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was in power in Japan. He stated that such a formulation of the issue does not suit Japan.

The following year, Putin himself again expressed his readiness to consider a compromise option according to the scenario of the 1956 declaration, but the Japanese again refused.

In 2006, the head of the Japanese Foreign Ministry, Taro Aso, proposed sharing with Russia southern part He smoked in half, but apparently the Japanese government did not like this: the Foreign Ministry said that Aso’s words were misinterpreted.

In 2009, Taro Aso, already prime minister, called the Southern Kuril Islands illegally occupied territories and said that he was waiting for proposals from Russia to solve this problem. Then the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Andrei Nesterenko called this statement “politically incorrect” and even “illegal.”

In the same year, Japanese parliamentarians adopted amendments to the legislation, which directly stated that the disputed islands belong to Japan. In response to this, deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation stated that until the Japanese cancel these amendments, it is pointless to discuss the peace treaty. There was no cancellation.

In the fall of the same year, the new Prime Minister of Japan, Yukio Hatoyama, said that he hoped to achieve progress in the negotiation process “in six months or a year.”

On September 23, 2009, at a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Hatoyama spoke about his desire to resolve the territorial dispute and conclude a peace treaty with Russia, but was not particularly successful in this.

In 2010, he spoke to the people, saying that Japan was not satisfied with the return of only two islands and that Hatoyama would make every effort to return all four islands. He also noted that it is very important for Russia to be friends with such an economically and technologically developed country like Japan.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has repeatedly visited the disputed islands, each time the Japanese authorities reacted with disapproval.

Abe - Putin

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has met with Putin more than 20 times during his reign (since 2012), but it was this fall that a turning point occurred, which once again forced active talk about a possible resolution of the ancient territorial dispute. In September, Putin suggested that the Japanese prime minister conclude a peace treaty without preconditions, and only then return to discussing the issue of the islands. And during a meeting in Singapore on November 14, Abe unexpectedly proposed returning to negotiations on the basis of the above-mentioned 1956 declaration.

Here there are two obvious conditions that Moscow will most likely impose on Tokyo. Firstly, having received two small islands, Japan will have to forever renounce its territorial claims and put an end to the long-term dispute. Second important point- the reason why the USSR refused to sign the treaty in the past: the presence of American military bases on Japanese territory. Shinzo Abe has already promised that if the islands are transferred, no American bases will appear on them, but here Japan is expected to have problems with the United States.

Kremlin press service

The day before, President Putin answered a question about the resumed negotiations very vaguely. He said the 1956 declaration was missing important details. It stipulates that the USSR is ready to transfer two islands to the southern part, but “it does not say on what grounds and under whose sovereignty they fall.” Such a statement, according to experts, makes it possible to quickly “back up” and return to the starting point if negotiations reach a dead end.

Secretary General of the Japanese government Yoshihide Suga, commenting on the statement of the Russian leader, hastened to say that Japan “expects that if Habomai and Shikotan are transferred to it, Tokyo’s sovereignty will extend to these islands. So far there is no additional information about the negotiation process. It is expected that some common ground will be reached during the upcoming contacts between the Russian and Japanese leaders: they will soon meet at the G20 summit in Argentina, Abe will visit Moscow at the beginning of 2019, and Putin will travel to Japan in the summer of the same year.

Shikotan and Habomai

A few words about the islands, which Russia seems ready to give to the Japanese.

Shikotan Island. Its area is 252.8 square kilometers.

At the end of the Great Patriotic War The civilian population of the Japanese county of Shikotan was about 1,000 people. In 1946, all persons with Japanese citizenship were expelled to Hokkaido. The population peaked at the end of the Soviet period, amounting to 7.5 thousand people. But after the collapse of the Union, it began to decline. Now about 2.8 thousand people live on the island.

Alexandr Liskin, Russian Look

Shikotan has a port, a fish canning plant and a power plant. In 2015, a large modern hospital appeared. There is a hydrophysical observatory on the island, and fishing and the extraction of marine animals are developed.

Habomai is a group of islands, which includes the islands of Polonsky, Oskolki, Zeleny, Demina, Yuri, Anuchina, Tafilyev and a number of small ones. The area is about 100 square kilometers.

The islands are stretched out in a line, the straits between them are shallow, filled with reefs and underwater rocks. There is no civilian population on these islands - only Russian border guards.

The latest news is full of information about the problem of ownership of the South Kuril Islands. The origins of the problem go back to pre-revolutionary times, but a peace treaty has not yet been concluded. And where the Kuril Islands are located on the map of Russia and why countries lay claim to them will be discussed below.

The Kuril Islands are a group of islands between Kamchatka and Hokkaido. The total length of the islands is 1200 km, divided into 2 parts: the Large and Small ridge.

The disputed Kuril Islands on the map are located directly next to the island of Hokkaido. These are the islands of Kunashir, Shikotan, Iturup and the uninhabited rocks of Habomai. In Russia they are classified as the Southern Kuriles group, and in Japan they are part of the northern territory of Nemuro District.

The climate on the islands is oceanic. The northern islands are influenced by proximity Atlantic Ocean, and to the southern Pacific Islands. In summer the temperature reaches +18⁰С, and in winter it drops to -5⁰С. Humidity all year round high, but without much effect on the air temperature. Kunashir is considered the warmest island, but on Shikotan the climate is more pleasant and milder.

How many islands are there in the Kuril ridge?

The Kuril ridge consists of 56 islands and rocks.

The area of ​​the Kuril Islands is 10.5 thousand sq.m.

History of the Kuril Islands, claimed by Japan

Initially, the population of the Kuril Islands consisted of the Ainu people. It was these people who gave the name to the islands. After all, from their language the word “man” was pronounced as “kuru”.

However, already in the 17th century, the active development of the islands by Russians and Japanese began. During this period, there were frequent clashes on the island, as a result of which no more than 100 people remained in the local population.

But by the end of the 19th century, Russia and Japan concluded a peace treaty, according to which the Southern Kuril Islands began to be considered Japanese territory, and the northern islands - Russian. 20 years later, after the Empire lost the war to Japan, another treaty was concluded. According to it, all the Kuril Islands began to belong to Japan, and Sakhalin began to belong to Russia (with the exception of the southern part).

The history of the annexation of the Kuril Islands to Russia resumed at the end of World War II. In February 1945, the Yalta Conference took place. One of the goals was to reduce the captured Japanese territories. As a result of the conference, an agreement was signed under which Russia was obliged to declare war on Japan within 3 months after the victory over Nazi Germany. In case of victory, the USSR had the right of ownership to all the islands of the Kuril chain.

A little less than 3 months later, the Union, as promised, declared war on Japan. It lasted a month and was more reminiscent of the process of Japanese surrender. On September 2 they landed on the Southern Kuril Islands Soviet troops.

In its official statements, Japan never recognized the islands as Soviet, but in an act of forced surrender it abandoned them.

Why does Japan need the Kuril Islands?

Many people wonder why Japan claims the Kuril Islands. According to the Japanese authorities, the Kuril Islands never belonged to Russia. And Japan considers some islands exclusively its northern territories.

The Japanese government believes that the Kuril Islands became Russian illegally.

In addition, according to the Japanese, the USSR violated the agreement between the countries by declaring war. After all, in 1941, the USSR and Japan signed a non-aggression agreement, which the Union extended in the spring of 1945, but then declared invalid.

If we consider the Kuril Islands as a source of minerals, then they are no longer of particular value. According to the assumption of some domestic scientists, rhenium occurs on the Kuril Islands. It is a valuable metal that Japan uses in the manufacture of electronics. The islands are also an opportunity to expand fishing, which is the main one for Japan.

Another important point - domestic politics and the attitude of residents to the problem of belonging to the Kuril Islands.

After the end of the war and until 1970, the importance of returning the Kuril Islands was promoted only local authorities Hokkaido Islands. And, according to surveys, the majority of Japanese residents had no idea about the northern territories, did not know the name of the Kuril Islands and where they were on the map. There was a moment when the Japanese authorities agreed to compromise with the USSR in order to resolve the conflict. And only the influence of the United States on Japan slowed down this decision.

But in the 70s, the situation changed dramatically when the opposition party demanded the withdrawal of American troops from the island of Okinawa. To smooth out the conflict, the ruling party began propaganda for the return of the Kuril Islands. And in 1981, Northern Territories Day was established, which is celebrated on February 7.

Since that time, an active movement for the return of the islands began in the country. According to latest news, only 5% of Japanese agree to a compromise with Russia. The rest requires the full return of the Southern Kuril Islands.

Why Russia does not want to give Japan the Kuril Islands

The first reason why Russia needs the Kuril Islands is its reluctance to allow American ships into the waters of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. At the same time, Western experts believe that Russia lacks the technical capabilities to launch submarines for long voyages. This is another reason to keep the Sea of ​​Okhotsk under complete control.

There is another important nuance. The Kuril Islands were annexed to the USSR at the same time as the Kaliningrad region. Russian authorities fear that when the Kuril Islands are transferred to Japan, Germany will claim its rights to the Kaliningrad region. This is one of the reasons why this issue is called “transfer” and not “return”.

During the dispute between Russia and Japan over the Kuril Islands, various options compromise throughout post-war history.

The return of Shikotan and the Habomai island group has not been of interest to the Japanese government for a long time. Even when the island of Kunashir was added to them. Of all the disputed territories, these 3 islands are populated and the largest. But Japan was not happy with this option. In the late 1980s, there were proposals from Japan for Russia to sell these islands. And even despite the crisis situation in the country, the authorities refused.

In 2012, the Prime Minister of Japan changed and a new round of resolving the issue of what would happen to the Southern Kuril Islands began. Before each diplomatic meeting, new rumors and speculation appear in the news about whether the islands were given up or not. At the same time, the Japanese Prime Minister said that only a referendum among local residents could finally decide the fate of the Kuril Islands.

The Russian authorities did not comment on this situation.

How to get from Moscow to the Kuril Islands

The islands can only be reached from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. The flight "Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk - Yuzhno-Kurilsk" is operated only by Aurora Airlines. At the same time, tickets for 1 person with luggage and hand luggage cost 15 thousand rubles almost all year round. Price increases are possible only on the eve of holidays or when demand increases.

A ship departs from the seaport of Korsakovsky 2 times a week in the summer to Kunashir. The ship makes stops at the island of Shikotan and on some trips at Iturup. The duration of the voyage is from 1.5 to 2.5 days, and the cost of tickets is from 3.5 thousand rubles. At the same time, in winter time the ship does not have a clear schedule and departs when there are good weather conditions.

The easiest way to get to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk from central Russia is from Moscow. Ticket prices start from 13 thousand rubles one way. The price depends on the chosen airline, season and comfort of the flight.

Thus, the cost of travel to the islands will start from 25 thousand rubles per person and one way.

Another option is by boat from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsk. You can search for steamships on forums, as these are usually private ships that take people and set sail.

Flights from Moscow to Petropavlovsk start from 20 thousand rubles per person, one way.

If you choose a time to travel, it is preferable to fly there in the summer. In winter, you can get stuck on the islands due to storms and bad weather.

Some of the islands belong to the border zone, so before traveling you will need permission from the FSB to enter.

Main attractions

It’s not enough to buy tickets and explore important sights. You need to prepare for the trip.

The climate on the islands is cool and humid. You need to take as much warm and waterproof clothing with you as possible. This is one thing you shouldn't skimp on when traveling. In addition, you will need sunscreen. It is almost always cloudy on the islands, but the sun from behind the clouds burns the skin almost immediately.

The southernmost island is Kunashir. It is formed by a chain of volcanoes, including active ones. Thanks to this, the island has rich flora and animal world.

In its very east is Cape Stolbchaty, which can only be compared with the Giant’s Causeway in Iceland. This cape was formed during the eruption of the Mendeleev volcano. To get to the cape, you need to go to the village of Golovino. Next, tourists will enter the reserve with organized trails and information signs. You can get to the cape itself along the coastline, knowing the low and high tide times.

On the eastern side of Kunashir Island there is the Small Kuriles Nature Reserve. It occupies the islands of a small ridge. The reserve was organized with the aim of increasing the population of birds and animals living in the waters. You can only get here by ship from Yuzhno-Kurilsk.

If possible, it is worth visiting the island of Paramushir. This is the largest island of the Kuril ridge, located in the north. It can only be reached by water. But the relief of the island is much more diverse and interesting than that of Kunashir and Shikotan. The island has many waterfalls, volcanoes and the highest point of the island – Chikurachki volcano (1800 m).

In the south of Iturup Island there is another nature reserve. It is unlikely that you will be able to walk across the entire territory due to the bamboo. But you can admire views of volcanoes, lakes and Lion’s Mouth Bay. Berries and mushrooms grow in the reserve, including Sakhalin champignon.

Where to stay

Due to what is happening now with the Kuril Islands and their remoteness from the mainland, tourism on the islands is practically undeveloped. You can find hotels or houses to stay in the Kuril Islands only on forums and a small number on aggregators. The people themselves live on the Kuril Islands mostly in large urban-type settlements.

One of the large hotels on Iturup Island is in the city of Kurilsk. All rooms are equipped with modern furniture and have been renovated. Breakfast is provided to guests in the morning. Transfer to the airport can be arranged upon request.

Another option for accommodation on Iturup Island is. Double or triple occupancy available. Depending on the price, the room will have its own bathroom.

It is located on Kunashir Island in the city of Yuzhno-Kurilsk. In addition to rooms, the hotel has its own gym, laundry, and cafe. In addition, the hotel administration will help with organizing excursions.

Those who go to Paramushir Island can stay at ". The hostel offers mixed dormitory rooms or a private single room. The hostel has a common room for relaxation and a kitchen area with everything you need.

The Kuril Islands on the map of Russia are literally on the edge. Getting there is difficult for most residents. It is also difficult for residents of the Kuril Islands to get to the mainland. It is interesting to be here for everyone who loves tourism around the country, even though the problem of belonging to the South Kuril Islands is still relevant according to the latest news.

14:32 — REGNUM The refusal of the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation to comment on the “nuances” of tête-à-tête talks between Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe only strengthened suspicions about a conspiracy behind the backs of the people regarding the fate of the islands of the Lesser Kuril chain that legally belong to our country , and the islands of the Great Kuril Ridge too.

Publications in the Russian media that Abe, who has set the goal of his political life to “return” the Kuril Islands, is allegedly ready to “close the issue”, being satisfied only with the Lesser Kuril chain - the island of Shikotan and 18 small islands, called Habomai in Japan, indicate an insufficient understanding of the existing Japan's sentiments on the issue of the so-called “northern territories”. In reality, Abe and his entourage only suggested that Putin start with the Lesser Kuril Ridge. And then, without ceasing to put forward unreasonable demands, to seek inclusion into the Japanese state of the islands of the Great Kuril chain - Kunashir and Iturup, to which Japan has no legal rights or grounds. In order to be convinced of this, it is enough to familiarize yourself with the almost daily assurances of the Secretary General of the Cabinet of Ministers of Japan, Y. Suga, who convinces the people that there are no changes in Abe’s position regarding the demands of all the “northern territories” - Kunashir, Iturup, Shikotan and Habomai, of course, with the richest 200-mile economic zones surrounding them.

As for the attempts to first lure Putin into negotiations on the “return” of supposedly only two islands, this insidious idea belongs not to Abe, but to his former party colleague, the cunning politician Muneo Suzuki, who “advises” him on methods of working with Russians, who was once expelled from Liberal Democratic Party of Japan and served a prison sentence for corruption. He proposed his plan to Abe, which he tried to implement in the processing of Boris Yeltsin, who agreed at a certain stage, not without Suzuki’s participation, to “give friend Ryu (then Prime Minister of Japan Ryutaro Hashimoto)” all the South Kuril Islands. By the way, we must pay tribute to Japanese prime ministers who, using Japanese methods of “enveloping” a partner with flattery and promises, quickly achieve “friendship” with the people they need Russian politicians and their transition to highly confidential negotiations hidden from the public.

But let’s return to the personality of Mr. Suzuki, who, for some unknown reason, seriously influences the current Prime Minister Abe. After the first official visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Japan in 2000, local newspapers emphasized that Putin for the first time recognized the validity of the 1956 Joint Declaration, which means that negotiations on the territorial issue will continue. It was noted that

“Putin became the first of the current Russian leaders to recognize the validity of the declaration and the possibility of its use as a legal basis for the continuation of negotiations between the two countries related to their territorial dispute.”

It was concluded that the new president was inclined to seek solutions to political contradictions with Japan, which gave rise to a certain optimism among official Tokyo.

The fact that Putin was understood correctly was actually confirmed by representatives of the Russian Foreign Ministry, who in their explanations to Japanese journalists chose not to confirm, but also not to deny such an interpretation of the president’s remarks. Putin himself, at a press conference in Tokyo, limited himself to only stating the complexity of the situation.

“What needs to be done to finally resolve the problem that exists between Russia and Japan? - he asked the question and answered it himself. “If we knew this one hundred percent, we would probably be answering other questions now.”

It should be noted that the position taken by Putin, or rather, imposed by diplomats from Yeltsin’s entourage, contained an obvious contradiction. On the one hand, in the joint statement published following the visit, all the South Kuril Islands claimed by Japan were again named as objects of dispute, and on the other hand, a line was outlined to return to the terms of the Joint Declaration of 1956, which refers only to the islands of Habomai and Shikotan.

Ivan Shilov © IA REGNUM

Having sensed Putin’s mood to look for ways to “finally resolve the problem,” Japanese politicians decided to help in such a search. The greatest activity in this direction was carried out by Muneo Suzuki, who held important positions in the ruling party and government for a number of years. As a member of parliament from the northern Hokkaido constituency, this politician set out to “make a personal contribution” to resolving the territorial dispute with Russia. To do this, he established close ties with the Japanese Foreign Ministry officials responsible for Japanese-Russian relations, and through them with Russian diplomats and politicians. Quite soon, Suzuki managed to “privatize” the territorial problem, achieving complete control over the course of its discussion by the foreign ministries of the two countries.

The plan of Suzuki and his henchmen in the Japanese Foreign Ministry was to involve the Russian government in discussing specific issues about the “return” of the islands of Habomai and Shikotan, for starters. During conversations with Russian politicians and diplomats in Tokyo and Moscow, Suzuki paid the main attention to the islands of the Lesser Kuril chain, hinting at the supposed possibility of certain conditions limit itself to the transfer of only these territories. At the same time, he promised his Japanese colleagues that he would certainly encourage the Russian side not to abandon the search for a solution to the issue of Kunashir and Iturup. However, much suggests that Suzuki himself, in his secret plans, agreed to receive only Habomai and Shikotan, because in this case these islands, and most importantly, the seafood-rich waters washing them, would most likely administratively be included in the area of ​​his electoral district with all the ensuing material benefits. The fact that this politician did not forget about his pocket when solving government issues was evidenced by the loud corruption scandal that subsequently broke out, which resulted in the arrest of Suzuki and his accomplices from among high-ranking diplomats and prison sentences. However, that was later.

In the period 2000−2001. Suzuki's political maneuvers in the Japanese-Russian direction met with the understanding of Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, who, like all his predecessors in this post, wanted to leave his name in history by achieving the “return of the original Japanese territories.” This was manifested in his undisguised interest in expanding contacts with President Putin in order to convince the latter of the great benefits for Russia of resolving the territorial dispute and signing a peace treaty between the two states. Due to the fact that Mori’s popularity in the country was falling, the Prime Minister hoped to improve his affairs by organizing another meeting with Putin as soon as possible to make “new” proposals on the territorial issue.

At first, the Japanese-Russian summit in Irkutsk was scheduled for the end of February 2001, but then was postponed by the Russian side to March 25. In all likelihood, Moscow needed time to verify the reliability of the “information” about Tokyo’s readiness for a compromise, which was supplied by “Russia’s friend” Suzuki. Judging by the events that followed, the Kremlin decided to make it clear to the Japanese with greater certainty that the territorial problem could be resolved by returning to the conditions of 1956.

It seems that in Irkutsk, in confidence, Putin agreed to discuss the option of transferring the Lesser Kuril Ridge to Japan. According to then-Prime Minister Mori, Putin said that if re-elected as president for a second term, he was ready to negotiate on Shikotan and Habomai. According to the former Japanese prime minister, the following was said verbatim:

“The transfer of Habomai and Shikotan to Japan is now difficult to realize. But if I am re-elected for a second term, I will make every effort to return these islands to Japan.”

Subsequently, the Russian Foreign Ministry refused to confirm this statement.

Hearing this from the president, Mori began to “strike while the iron is hot.” He tried in every possible way to convince his interlocutor to agree to the “return” of all the South Kuril Islands, declaring Japan’s readiness to get what it wanted not at the same time, but as if in installments - first Habomai and Shikotan, and then, after some time, Kunashir and Iturup. At the same time, the Japanese position was presented as an alleged manifestation of a new, more flexible approach to solving the territorial problem.

Naturally, Putin could not agree with such an “expansive” interpretation of his consent to continue negotiations on the two islands, which was directly stated to the Japanese Prime Minister. Moreover, the President considered it necessary to point out the existing discrepancies in what was written in the Joint Declaration, saying that Article 9 “needs additional work by experts to develop a uniform understanding” of its provisions. The essence of the “discrepancies” is that the Japanese side for some reason believes that the text of Article 9 supposedly implies the transfer of the islands of Habomai and Shikotan to Japan, regardless of the signing of the peace treaty. The agreement, according to the Japanese version, can be concluded only after the issue of ownership of the islands of Kunashir and Iturup is resolved in favor of Japan.

Such an interpretation is at least strange - after all, this article of the Joint Declaration clearly states:

“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 a peace treaty between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Japan."

It clearly follows from this that, according to the Joint Declaration of 1956, the possibility of transferring the islands of Habomai and Shikotan to Japan is provided only on the condition that the Japanese side agrees to renounce other territorial claims and this is confirmed by the fact of concluding a peace treaty. In this regard, putting forward claims to Kunashir and Iturup is nothing more than an arbitrary step of Japanese diplomacy.

Despite the fact that in Irkutsk, President Putin politely rejected the proposal of the Japanese side to begin the so-called “negotiations on two tracks,” namely on Habomai and Shikotan and separately on Kunashir and Iturup, he, like a year ago, signed the agreement agreed between Russian and Japanese diplomats, a document in which they repeated and even expanded the formulations of the Yeltsin period that were favorable to Japan. Thus, the president’s proposal to consider the possibility of returning to the 1956 compromise seemed to hang in the air.

Nevertheless, to the considerable satisfaction of the Japanese side, the joint statement again included provisions beneficial to Japan, fixing the “disputed nature” of all the islands claimed by Tokyo. In a joint statement signed by the President of the Russian Federation, in particular, it was written that the parties:

“- Based on this, they agreed to accelerate further negotiations with the aim of concluding a peace treaty by resolving the issue of ownership of the islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai and thus achieve complete normalization of bilateral relations on the basis of the Tokyo Declaration on Russian-Japanese Relations of 1993;

— agreed to intensify negotiations in order to achieve a mutually acceptable solution and, as soon as possible, determine a specific direction of movement towards concluding a peace treaty;

- confirmed that they will continue cooperation related to the islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai, aimed at creating favorable conditions for the early conclusion of a peace treaty;

— confirmed the importance of implementing the Memorandum on the new edition of the Joint Collection of Documents on the history of territorial delimitation between Russia and Japan and activities to explain to the public the importance of concluding a peace treaty, signed on January 16, 2001 in Moscow by Foreign Ministers I. S. Ivanov and Y. Kono.”

Ivan Shilov © IA REGNUM

The text of the Irkutsk Statement, like the content of similar bilateral documents of the Yeltsin period, although it was largely imposed by the Japanese side and contained statements favorable to it, did not go beyond the scope of the “memorandum of intent.” The indication of the desire to “conclude a peace treaty by resolving the issue of ownership of the islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai” did not mean that the issue of ownership of these islands should a priori be resolved in favor of Japan. What attracted attention was the appearance in the statement, apparently at the initiative of the Russian side, of a clause characterizing the 1956 Joint Declaration as a “basic legal document.” This was evidence of the intention of the Russian leadership at a certain stage to bring the conditions of 1956 to the center of Russian-Japanese negotiations on concluding a peace treaty.

However, the plan to involve Moscow in specific negotiations on the transfer of the islands of Habomai and Shikotan on the terms of agreement with subsequent discussion of the issue of ownership of Kunashir and Iturup could not be realized. It can be said that the combination inspired by Suzuki and his Russian partners with the “reanimation” of the conditions of 1956 resulted in a fiasco for both the Japanese and Russian sides. The Kremlin was made to understand that no matter how the negotiations progress, the Japanese government will not renounce its claims to Kunashir and Iturup. One of Japan's leading newspapers, Asahi Shimbun, noted after the Irkutsk meeting:

“...Russia still claims that, according to the Declaration, territorial negotiations end with the return of only two islands to Japan. But if this is so, and Russia is not ready to go beyond the return of two islands to Japan, then this is fraught with nothing more than the failure of negotiations. At the same time, if we assume that Japan, which demands four islands, would now agree to receive only two islands, then this would still lead to further negotiations on the return of the other two remaining islands. And therefore, at the current meeting of the leaders of the two countries, such differences in their positions remained absolutely not overcome.”

This situation continues to this day. Nevertheless, the results of the Irkutsk meeting brought a new emphasis to the Russian-Japanese dialogue on the issue of concluding a peace treaty and demonstrated Moscow’s desire to seek compromise options.

The end of the behind-the-scenes activities of Suzuki and his “team” consisting of Japanese and Russian diplomats was put by the new Prime Minister of Japan, Junichiro Koizumi, who came to power in April 2001. Already in his first speech in the Japanese parliament, he emphasized that he would steadily strive for the return of all four South Kuril Islands to Japan. This meant that the proposal made by the Russian side about the possibility of transferring the two islands was rejected. The Japanese plan for conducting negotiations “on two tracks” was also criticized, that is, separately on the transfer of the islands of Habomai and Shikotan and on the ownership of Kunashir and Iturup.

However, close contacts of Russian diplomats with Suzuki and his assistants continued until a corruption scandal of unprecedented scale broke out in Japan around this political businessman, involving both entrepreneurs and many officials of the Japanese Foreign Ministry. And only after this, having finally understood who they were dealing with, the Russian leadership somewhat cooled down to behind-the-scenes contacts with Japanese politicians. Moreover, it was decided to demonstrate a firm position regarding Japanese claims to the Far Eastern lands of Russia. With tacit consent, and perhaps at the initiative of the Kremlin, on March 18, 2002, open hearings “Southern Kuril Islands: problems of economics, politics and security” were held in the State Duma of the Russian Federation. The hearings were organized jointly by the Security Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Geopolitics Committee, in which MPs loyal to the government predominated.

“Based on the legal, historical and moral justification for the ownership of the southern Kuril Islands, and also taking into account their exceptional importance from geopolitical, military-strategic, moral-political and economic points of view, the participants in the parliamentary hearings declare that the so-called territorial issue has found its legal and fair decision following the Second World War, enshrined in relevant international agreements, should not be on the agenda of Russian-Japanese relations.”

Daria Antonova © IA REGNUM

Participants in the hearings expressed their conviction that “a peace treaty with Japan at the cost of territorial concessions to Russia is unacceptable.” It was proposed that the head of state should direct the Russian Foreign Ministry to abandon fruitless negotiations and to conclude a comprehensive Treaty of Good Neighborhood and Cooperation with Japan.

There was no public reaction from the president to this appeal. Moreover, a senior representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry hastened to assure the Japanese that Moscow “will continue to continue negotiations with Tokyo regarding the four islands.” This allowed Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi to express the opinion that “the position of the Russian government differs from the position of the Duma” and one should “trust the statements of the Russian government about its readiness to discuss all issues related to the negotiations on a peace treaty between the two countries.”

What is happening now is just an attempt to “reanimate” Suzuki’s plan, only now Russian President Vladimir Putin has become the object of “active measures”.

It is important to understand that even if politician Abe, who has decided to put his reputation on the line, agrees to the conditions for Russia to surrender only Habomai and Shikotan, not only the opposition, but also fellow party members will not allow him to do this. Let us recall that in the last election of the party chairman, a third of the congress participants voted for another candidate, Shigeru Ishiba. And Ishiba, as you know, is critical of Abe’s methods of working with the Russian president.

We should not forget that the parliamentary Communist Party of Japan advocates in its program the “return” of all the Kuril Islands up to Kamchatka. And numerous right-wing nationalist organizations in the country, supported by big capital, even demand “all Tishima and Karafuto,” that is, all the Kuril Islands and South Sakhalin. It is these slogans that are inscribed on their propaganda machines “decorated” with militaristic flags and contained in heart-rending screams outside the walls of the Russian embassy and other Russian institutions in Japan.

Ivan Shilov © IA REGNUM

And surveys of the country’s population, who have imbibed from school the belief in “the original belonging of Japan to all the northern territories,” show that a clear minority is in favor of resolving the “territorial issue” on the basis of a voluntaristic “Khrushchev compromise.” So the Lesser Kuril Ridge is unlikely to suit the Japanese, who emphasize that it makes up only 7 percent of the area of ​​the coveted “northern territories.”

In addition, our population is not informed that in reality Abe is not proposing the conditions of 1956, but the resuscitation of the “Yeltsin-Kozyrev” plan for the surrender of the Kuril Islands in two stages - “two plus alpha” - first Shikotan and Habomai, and then Kunashir and Iturup . There is also an idea in Japan to include in the draft peace treaty the consent of the Russian side to continue negotiations on the “return” of Kunashir and Iturup. But then it will not be a peace treaty, but some other one, because the peace treaty provides for the final settlement of the border line.

In conclusion, we note with regret that the Kuril Islands will remain Russian not as a result of the principled position of the Russian authorities, but as a result of the revanchist sentiments of the Japanese, adhering to the “all or nothing” principle, which is futile in this case.

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.”

Illustration copyright Getty Images Image caption Migrants from the “northern territories” still live in Japan, as well as their descendants who do not mind returning to their historical homeland

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. “President Putin in last days Before leaving for Japan, he repeatedly said that for Russia the problem of ownership of the Kuril Islands does not exist, that the Kuril Islands are, in essence, a military trophy as a result 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.

Illustration copyright Getty Images Image caption The Russians, like the Japanese, do not expect concessions from their authorities on the Kuril Islands

“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 the Second World War, 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“Anything,” 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 on patrol 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 big. 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 to 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.

Illustration copyright RIA Image caption As head of the Russian state, Putin last visited Japan 11 years ago.

The Japanese government intends to acquire part of the gas fields through the state corporation of oil, gas and metals JOGMEC 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 at the working breakfast Russian President and the Prime Minister of Japan 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 Investment Fund 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.

On the issue of Japan's claims to our Kuril Islands

Japanese politicians time after time “press the pedal”, initiating conversations with Moscow on the subject that, supposedly, “it’s time to return the Northern Territories to the Japanese masters.”

Previously, we did not particularly react to this hysteria from Tokyo, but now, it seems, we need to respond.

To begin with, a picture with text that represents better than any analytical articles Japan's real position at the time she was winner Russia. Now they are whining begging, but as soon as they feel their strength, they immediately begin to play “king of the hill”:

Japan took away a hundred years ago our Russian lands- half of Sakhalin and all the Kuril Islands as a result of Russia’s defeat in the 1905 war. From those times, the famous song “On the Hills of Manchuria” remained, which in Russia still reminds of the bitterness of that defeat.

However, times have changed, and Japan itself has become defeatist in the Second World War, which personally started against China, Korea and other Asian countries. And, overestimating its strength, Japan even attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor in December 1941 - after which the United States entered the war against Japan and its ally Hitler. Yes Yes, Japan was Hitler's ally but somehow little is remembered about that today. Why? Who has become displeased with History in the West?

As a result of its own military disaster, Japan signed the "Act of unconditional surrender"(!), where in text It is clearly stated that “We hereby undertake that the Japanese Government and its successors will faithfully implement the terms and conditions.” Potsdam Declaration" And in that “ Potsdam Declaration» clarified that « Japanese sovereignty will be limited to the islands Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and those smaller islands that we will indicate" And where are the “northern territories” that the Japanese demand “back” from Moscow? In general, what territorial claims to Russia can be discussed in Japan, which deliberately committed aggression in alliance with Hitler?

– Although we have a purely negative attitude towards any transfer of any islands to Japan, we should still, in fairness, explain: tactics recent years, which is perfectly clear to professionals, is the following: do not deny outright what was promised by the previous authorities, talk only about fidelity to the 1956 Declaration, that is, only about Habomai and Shikotan, thereby excluding from the problem Kunashir and Iturup, which appeared under pressure from Japan in the negotiations in the mid-90s, and, finally, to accompany the words about “loyalty” to the Declaration with such formulations that today do not coincide with the position of Japan.

– The declaration assumed first the conclusion of a peace treaty and only then the “transfer” of the two islands. The transfer is an act of good will, a willingness to dispose of one’s own territory “meeting the wishes of Japan and taking into account the interests of the Japanese state.” Japan insists that the “return” precede the peace treaty, because the very concept of “return” is a recognition of the illegality of their belonging to the USSR, which is is a revision not only of the results of the Second World War, but also of the principle of the inviolability of these results.

– Satisfying Japanese claims to “return” the islands would mean directly undermining the principle of the non-dispute of the results of World War II and would open up the possibility of questioning other aspects of the territorial status quo.

– “Complete and unconditional surrender” of Japan is fundamentally different from simple surrender due to legal, political and historical consequences. A simple “surrender” means an admission of defeat in hostilities and does not affect the international legal personality of the defeated power, no matter what losses it may have suffered. Such a state retains its sovereignty and legal personality and itself, as a legal party, negotiates peace terms. “Complete and unconditional surrender” means the cessation of the existence of a subject of international relations, the dismantling of the former state as a political institution, the loss of sovereignty and all powers that pass to the victorious powers, which themselves determine the conditions of peace and the post-war order and settlement.

– In the case of “complete and unconditional surrender” with Japan, then Japan retained the former emperor, which is used to claim that Japan's legal personality was not interrupted. However, in reality, the source of maintaining imperial power is different - it is will and decision of the Winners.

– US Secretary of State J. Byrnes pointed out to V. Molotov: “Japan’s position does not stand up to criticism that it cannot consider itself bound by the Yalta agreements, since it was not a party to them.” Today's Japan is a post-war state, and a settlement can only come from the post-war international legal framework, especially since only this basis has legal force.

– The “Soviet-Japanese Declaration of October 19, 1956” recorded the USSR’s readiness to “transfer” the islands of Habomai and Shikotan to Japan, but only after the conclusion of the Peace Treaty. It's about not about “return”, but about “transfer”, that is, the readiness to dispose as act of goodwill its territory, which does not create a precedent for revising the results of the war.

– The United States exerted direct pressure on Japan during the Soviet-Japanese negotiations in 1956 and did not stop before ultimatum: The United States stated that if Japan signs a “Peace Treaty” with the USSR, in which it agrees to recognize South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands as part of the territory of the USSR, " The United States will forever retain its possession of the Ryukyu Islands."(Okinawa).

– Signing of the “Soviet-Japanese Declaration”, according to the reckless plan of N. Khrushchev, was supposed to keep Japan from concluding a military cooperation agreement with the United States. However, such an agreement between Tokyo and Washington followed on January 19, 1960, and according to it it was enshrined unlimited presence of American armed forces on Japanese territory.

- On January 27, 1960, the Soviet government announced “a change in circumstances” and warned that “only subject to the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Japanese territory and the signing of a Peace Treaty between the USSR and Japan, the islands of Habomai and Shikotan will be transferred to Japan.”

Here are some thoughts about Japanese “wants”.

Kuril Islands: not four naked islands

IN Lately The “question” of the Southern Kuril Islands is being discussed again. The media of mass disinformation are fulfilling the task of the current government - to convince the people that we do not need these islands. The obvious is being hushed up: after the transfer of the Southern Kuril Islands to Japan, Russia will lose a third of its fish, our Pacific Fleet will be locked up and will not have free access to the Pacific Ocean, the entire border system in the east of the country will need to be reviewed, etc. I, a geologist who worked in the Far East, Sakhalin for 35 years, and who visited the South Kuril Islands more than once, am especially outraged by the lie about the “four bare islands” supposedly representing the South Kuril Islands.

Let's start with the fact that the Southern Kuril Islands are not 4 islands. They include Fr. Kunashir, O. Iturup And all islands of the Lesser Kuril ridge. The latter includes Fr. Shikotan(182 sq. km), o. Green(69 sq. km), o. Polonsky(15 sq. km), o. Tanfilyeva(8 sq. km), o. Yuri(7 sq. km), o. Anuchina(3 sq. km) and many smaller islands: o. Demina, O. Shards, O. Sentry, O. Signal and others. And to the island Shikotan usually include islands Griga And Aivazovsky. The total area of ​​the islands of the Lesser Kuril Ridge is about 300 square meters. km, and all the islands of the South Kuril Islands - more than 8500 sq. km. What the Japanese, and after them “our” democrats and some diplomats, call an island Habo mai, is about 20 islands.

The subsoil of the Southern Kuril Islands contains a large complex of minerals. Its leading elements are gold and silver, deposits of which have been explored on the island. Kunashir. Here, at the Prasolovskoye field, in some areas the content gold reaches a kilogram or more, silver– up to 5 kg per ton of rock. The predicted resources of the North Kunashir ore cluster alone are 475 tons of gold and 2160 tons of silver (these and many other figures are taken from the book “Mineral resource base of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands at the turn of the third millennium” published last year by the Sakhalin book publishing house). But, besides Fr. Kunashir, other islands of the Southern Kuril Islands are also promising for gold and silver.

In the same Kunashir, polymetallic ores are known (Valentinovskoye deposit), in which the content zinc reaches 14%, copper – up to 4%, gold– up to 2 g/t, silver– up to 200 g/t, barium– up to 30%, strontium- until 3 %. Reserves zinc amount to 18 thousand tons, copper– 5 thousand tons. On the islands of Kunashir and Iturup there are several ilmenite-magnetite placers with high content gland(up to 53%), titanium(up to 8%) and increased concentrations vanadium. Such raw materials are suitable for the production of high-grade vanadium cast iron. At the end of the 60s, Japan offered to buy Kuril ilmenite-magnetite sands. Is it because of the high vanadium content? But in those years, not everything was bought and sold; there were values ​​more valuable than money, and transactions were not always accelerated by bribes.

Of particular note are the recently discovered rich ore accumulations in the Southern Kuril Islands. Rhenia, which is used for parts of supersonic aircraft and missiles, protects the metal from corrosion and wear. These ores are modern volcanic debris. The ore continues to accumulate. It is estimated that only one Kudryavy volcano on the island. Iturup carries out 2.3 tons of rhenium per year. In some places the ore content of this valuable metal reaches 200 g/t. Will we also give it to the Japanese?

Among non-metallic minerals, we will highlight deposits sulfur. Nowadays this raw material is one of the most scarce in our country. Deposits of volcanic sulfur have long been known in the Kuril Islands. The Japanese developed it in many places. Soviet geologists explored and prepared for development a large deposit of Novoe sulfur. In only one of its sections - Western - industrial reserves of sulfur amount to more than 5 million tons. On the islands of Iturup and Kunashir there are many smaller deposits that can attract entrepreneurs. In addition, some geologists consider the area of ​​the Lesser Kuril Ridge to be promising for oil and gas.

In the Southern Kuril Islands there are very scarce in the country and very valuable thermomineral waters. The most famous of them are the Hot Beach springs, in which waters with a high content of silicic and boric acids have a temperature of up to 100 o C. There is a hydropathic clinic here. Similar waters are found in the North Mendeleev and Chaykin springs on the island. Kunashir, as well as in a number of places on the island. Iturup.

And who hasn't heard about thermal waters Southern Kuriles? In addition to being a tourist site, it is thermal energy raw materials, the importance of which has recently increased due to the ongoing energy crisis in the Far East and the Kuril Islands. So far, geothermal hydroelectric power stations using underground heat operate only in Kamchatka. But it is possible and necessary to develop high-potential coolants - volcanoes and their derivatives - on the Kuril Islands. By now on about. Kunashir, the Hot Beach steam hydrothermal deposit has been explored, which can provide heat and hot water the city of Yuzhno-Kurilsk (partially the steam-water mixture is used to supply heat to a military unit and state farm greenhouses). On about. Iturup has explored a similar deposit – Okeanskoye.

It is also important that the Southern Kuril Islands are a unique testing ground for studying geological processes, volcanism, ore formation, studying giant waves (tsunamis), and seismicity. There is no other such scientific site in Russia. And science, as you know, is a productive force, the fundamental basis for the development of any society.

And how can one call the Southern Kuril Islands “bare islands” if they are covered with almost subtropical vegetation, where there is a lot medicinal herbs and berries (aralia, lemongrass, redberry), the rivers are rich red fish(chum salmon, pink salmon, masu salmon), fur seals, sea lions, seals, sea otters live on the coast, the shallow water is strewn with crabs, shrimp, sea cucumbers, and scallops?

Isn’t all of the above known in the government, in the Russian Embassy in Japan, and in “our” democrats? I think that discussions about the possibility of transferring the Southern Kuril Islands to Japan - not from stupidity, but from meanness. Some figures like Zhirinovsky propose to sell our islands to Japan and name specific amounts. Russia sold Alaska cheaply, also considering the peninsula “land of no use to anyone.” And now the United States gets a third of its oil, more than half of its gold, and much more from Alaska. So go cheap anyway, gentlemen!

How Russia and Japan will divide the Kuril Islands. We answer eight naive questions about the disputed islands

Moscow and Tokyo, perhaps closer than ever to solving the problem of the South Kuril Islands - this is what Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe thinks. For his part, Vladimir Putin explained that Russia is ready to discuss this issue only on the basis of the Soviet-Japanese declaration of 1956 - according to it, the USSR agreed to hand over to Japan only two the smallest South Kuril Islands - Shikotan and I am coming Habomai. But he left behind large and inhabited islands Iturup And Kunashir.

Will Russia agree to the treaty and where did the “Kuril issue” come from? A senior researcher at the Center for Japanese Studies at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences helped Komsomolskaya Pravda to figure out. Victor Kuzminkov.

1. Why do the Japanese even lay claim to the Kuril Islands? After all, they abandoned them after World War II?

– Indeed, in 1951 the San Francisco Peace Treaty was concluded, where it was stated that Japan refuses from all claims to the Kuril Islands, agrees Kuzminkov. - But a few years later, in order to get around this point, the Japanese began to call the four islands - Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai - northern territories and deny that they belong to the Kuril ridge (and, on the contrary, they belong to the island of Hokkaido). Although on pre-war Japanese maps they were designated precisely as the Southern Kuril Islands.

2. Still, how many disputed islands are there – two or four?

– Now Japan lays claim to all four of the above-mentioned islands; in 1855, the border between Russia and Japan passed along them. But immediately after World War II - both in San Francisco in 1951 and in 1956 at the signing of the Soviet-Japanese Declaration - Japan disputed only Shikotan and Habomai. At that time, they recognized Iturup and Kunashir as the Southern Kuriles. It is precisely about returning to the positions of the 1956 declaration that Putin and Abe are now talking about.

“Joint farming in the Kuril Islands was discussed, but I believe that this is a stillborn project,” the expert commented. – Japan will demand preferences that will call into question Russia’s sovereignty in these territories.

Likewise, the Japanese are not ready to agree to lease the islands from Russia (this idea has also been voiced) - they consider the northern territories to be their ancestral land.

In my opinion, the only real option today is to sign a peace treaty, which means little for both countries. And the subsequent creation of a border delimitation commission, which will sit for at least 100 years, but will not come to any decision.

HELP "KP"

The total population of the South Kuril Islands is about 17 thousand people.

Island group Habomai(more than 10 islands) – uninhabited.

On the island Shikotan– 2 villages: Malokurilskoye and Krabozavodskoye. There is a cannery. During the Soviet years it was one of the largest in the USSR. But now little remains of its former power.

On the island Iturup– the city of Kurilsk (1600 people) and 7 villages. In 2014, the Iturup International Airport was opened here.

On the island Kunashir– the village of Yuzhno-Kurilsk (7,700 people) and 6 smaller villages. There is a geothermal power plant and more than a hundred military installations here.