Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has criticized Japan over a bilateral territorial dispute, saying that Japan is the only country challenging the results of World War II.
Lavrov made the remarks in a newspaper interview by government-affiliated Rossiiskaya Gazeta (Russian Gazette) that was published on Tuesday.
He was asked if there are prospects for settlement of the dispute over a group of islands off Hokkaido that the Russians say have become Russian territory as a result of World War II.
The Russian minister said when they ask the Japanese if they recognize the results of the war, they say yes on the whole but not concerning the island issue.
"We can say that Japan is the only country that calls into question the outcome of the Second World War, no one else does," he said.
Japan maintains that the Soviet Union waged war with Japan by violating the neutrality pact toward the end of the war and Soviet forces occupied the islands following Japan's surrender in World War II on Aug. 15, 1945.