When Japanese President Shinzo Abe addressed a packed audience at the Eastern Economic Forum in September, held in the Russian Far East city of Vladivostok, he had a direct message for his host.
He appealed to Vladimir Putin, like he does every time the two leaders meet, to help expedite the signing of a treaty that would formally, and finally, end World War II.
A little later, Putin turned animatedly to Abe. "You won't believe it, but honestly, it's a simple thought, but it came to my mind just now, right here," he said. "Let's sign a peace agreement by the end of the year," he told Abe, "without any preconditions."
The room erupted in applause, and Russian state media hailed the offer as a breakthrough. "This is a sensation," gushed a Rossia-24 presenter covering the event. "Unbelievable progress has been reached."
But as Putin and Abe prepare for talks in Moscow on January 22, a territorial dispute that has remained unresolved since the war continues to stall efforts toward a Russo-Japanese peace deal, and analysts say there is little indication the latest round of negotiations will change that.
'Inherent Part Of Japan'
For the past 70 years, Japan has waged a dogged diplomatic campaign to reclaim what it calls its Northern Territories, a handful of islands off the coast of Hokkaido, its northernmost prefecture, that the Soviet Union captured in the final days of World War II.
Today they are referred to by Moscow as the Southern Kuriles, an extension of the archipelago that extends southward from Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula.
Japan established sovereignty over the islands in dispute -- Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan, and a group of islets known as Habomai -- in an agreement with the Russian Empire in 1855. They are still considered by Tokyo to be an "inherent part of the territory of Japan."
"There's a historical and ancestral aspect to this discussion from the Japanese standpoint," says Stephen R. Nagy, an associate professor with the department of politics and international studies at International Christian University in Tokyo. "Many feel they have left the lands of their ancestors."
For Russia, the Kuriles provide its naval fleet with access to the Pacific, and serve as a symbol of the Soviet role in the World War II victory.
Following the war, the two countries failed to sign a peace treaty, although the Soviet-Japanese Joint Declaration of October 1956 formally ended hostilities and opened diplomatic relations between the two sides. The declaration also annulled previous Soviet claims of war reparations against Japan and provided for two of the disputed territories -- Habomai and Shikotan -- to be returned to Japan following the conclusion of a formal peace treaty.
When Putin and Abe followed up on their Vladivostok meeting with talks in November in Singapore, they agreed to use the 1956 agreement as a foundation for further discussion. But that leaves Putin's offer of "no preconditions" in question.
What Comes First?
After talks in Moscow earlier this month between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Japanese counterpart, Taro Kono, Moscow made clear that Japan must accept Russian sovereignty of the disputed territories before any peace treaty is signed. "Questions of sovereignty over the islands are not being discussed. It is the Russian Federation's territory," Lavrov was quoted as saying.
And there have been key developments since 1956: namely, the deepening of the U.S.-Japanese alliance, and more recently the decision to station a U.S. missile-defense system on Japanese territory. The Japanese press has reported that Abe assured Putin no U.S. bases would be built on the islands once under Japanese possession, a fear that Russia has voiced many times. But Japan's partnership with the United States remains a sticking point.
Artyom Lukin, an international-studies expert at the Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok, says there is little reason to believe a treaty will be hammered out immediately.
"I don't think that anything substantive, anything which could be pronounced publicly, will come out of this meeting," Lukin says of the January 22 talks. "They may make a tentative, preliminary agreement, but because the issue is so complex they'll need more high-level meetings before the issue is settled. My guess is that we'll see no public announcement until Putin's planned visit to Japan in June."
Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Russia In Global Affairs, says that Putin's statement in Vladivostok was blown out of proportion. In fact, Lukyanov argues, the Russian president was just reiterating a long-held stance.
"The Japanese position is the territorial issue first, and then, after having settled that, we can discuss the peace treaty," Lukyanov says. "And the Russian position, strongly supported by Putin in that speech, is just the opposite -- first normalize the relationship and then maybe we can discuss this issue."
Lukin agrees. "I wouldn't read too much into Putin's statement in Vladivostok," he says. "I think we should pay much more attention to Abe's statement in Singapore, when he said that Japan was ready to negotiate on the basis of the 1956 declaration. For me this basically means that Japan is ready to accept the fact that it can't get from Russia anything more than Habomai and Shikotan. So the question is, how much and what will Russia demand from Japan in exchange for those two islands."
Generosity Not Popular
At a press briefing in Tokyo following Putin's appearance with Abe in Vladivostok in September, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga insisted that Japan's position remained that "the Northern Territories issue is resolved before any peace treaty." But few expect Russia to yield.
An opinion survey carried out in November by the independent pollster Levada Center found that only 17 percent of Russians support the handover of the disputed territories to Japan in exchange for a peace deal to end World War II. Almost three-quarters were against the idea.
WATCH: A coalition of Russian nonparliamentary parties protested on January 20 in Moscow against any territorial concessions to Japan. Similar rallies took place in other Russian cities amid Russian-Japanese talks on a post-World War II settlement.
Russian state media has helped keep those numbers up. On January 13, flagship news program Vesti Nedeli dismissed the Japanese suggestion that the islands be returned before a treaty is ratified.
"We have the hypersonic Avangard rocket, we have the hypersonic Kinzhal," host Dmitry Kiselyov said, referring to two nuclear-capable weapons ceremoniously unveiled by Putin during his state-of-the-nation address in March. "We don't need anything from Japan.... And how can we politely explain that one should behave politely?"
In November, the independent Russian daily Vedomosti wrote in an editorial that "much time has been lost" in settling the Kuriles question. "The Kremlin has succeeded in reviving imperialist passions," it wrote. "Any territorial concession after the annexation of Crimea will damage Putin's image as a gatherer of Russian lands, and will raise the level of discontent among his traditional support base."
Lukyanov says that Putin is aware of Russian public opinion and unlikely to advance such a controversial cause at a time when his approval ratings are already slipping.
"Any territorial concession in any country is a very unpopular move, and to make it, a leadership should be in a strong position," he says. "Theoretically, I can imagine that something like this would be doable immediately after the Crimean takeover five years ago, but now the situation is different, and the whole atmosphere in the country is much less optimistic, because of economic and other problems. And in this situation, to give such a juicy piece to opponents, to accuse Putin of unpopular territorial concessions, that's certainly not what he needs right now."
In recent weeks, several rallies have been held across Russia to protest the possible handover of the islands. On January 20, some 300 nationalists and members of the Russian far right gathered in central Moscow, chanting slogans including "Crimea is ours! The Kuriles are ours!" and "We won't return the Kuriles!"
In its bid for a diplomatic breakthrough, the Japanese leadership has suggested that Russia's cession of the islands would open up trade with its Asian neighbor at a time of debilitating Western sanctions. But Lukyanov describes as a "primitive interpretation" the notion that Russia might relinquish the Kuriles because it needs Japan for its economic development.
"Russia's real calculation is much more geostrategic," he says. "Because Russia's drift toward Asia is inevitable and will continue, because the whole of international politics is shifting to the East, and to Asia."
The Russian leadership is aware of the risk of becoming overly dependent on China, he adds.
"For Russia, strategically it's much more important to have a stable and constructive relationship with the big powers in Asia -- South Korea, Japan, India, and Indonesia -- all those that might play a role as counterweights to China. And this, to me, is the only reason why the whole discussion [about the Kuriles] is still going on."
