Visits to Japan by Soviet and Russian leaders over the years have done little to break the Northern Territories deadlock — Moscow's refusal of Tokyo's demand for two large islands at the southern end of the Kuril Island chain occupied by Soviet troops in 1945, as a condition for a peace treaty with Moscow.
Is the visit this week by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin likely to change things?
The problem goes back to the San Francisco Peace Treaty between Japan and most of its World War II enemies signed in 1951. Article 2 (c) of the treaty states unequivocally that in addition to the southern half of Sakhalin, Japan also renounced all right, claim and title to something called the "Kurile Islands."