Russian Protesters Decry Possible Territory Handover To Japan

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, which could include Russia's handover of some of the Kurile Islands to Japan. Among the speakers at the Moscow event was Igor Strelkov, a former Russia-backed separatist military commander in eastern Ukraine.