Translated material
Sakhalin: Residents of the region conduct folk gatherings against the transfer of Kuril
Today in the Sakhalin Region, residents of several cities and towns reached protests against the transfer of the Kuril Islands of Japan at once. Somewhere, according to the organizers, single pickets passed, and somewhere people went on folk gatherings. According to their calculations, more than 200 people took part in the shares.
The Civil Position Coordinator Stanislav Kuznetsov informed the Siberia. Road correspondent that the action participants also advocated the return of direct elections and against the unification of Sakhalin with Primorye. At the same time, local authorities in all cases refused to coordinate events. There is no information about the detention of protesters.
“They tried to interfere with people as they could. Somewhere in the squares they immediately began to clean the snow, simply not allowing residents to put signatures under a general resolution with our requirements. Although, in general, I believe that everything went well. We will continue to collect the opinions of residents of the region on these issues,” said the editorial office of Kuznetsov.
He also said that on January 19, a similar folk gathering should take place in the capital of the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk region. There, the authorities also did not allow the action.
Supporters of protest in their resolution demanded that the conclusion of a peace treaty be excluded from the agenda with Japan, as an excuse for territorial concessions and the termination of propaganda about the need for such an agreement, since after the unconditional surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945, a point was actually set in this matter. It was also proposed to revive the celebration of the Victory Day over Japan, which has been unprotected since 1947. In addition, the signed are opposed to the possible unification of the Sakhalin region with the Primorsky Territory.
Japan does not recognize the Russian belonging of the islands of Iturup, Shikotan, Kunashir and Habomai. They were occupied by the USSR at the end of World War II. Due to the dispute about the belonging of the islands, Russia and Japan have not yet signed a peace treaty. In November, after the meeting of ABE with Russian President Vladimir Putin, it became known that Japan is ready to return to the 1956 Islands Declaration. In it, the USSR agreed to transfer to Japan the islands of Habomai and Shikotan after signing a peace treaty between the two countries.
The position of Moscow is that the islands became part of the USSR following World War II and Russia's sovereignty has no doubt over them. However, after a meeting with Putin, Abe said that Russia is ready to accelerate the negotiation process under a peace treaty on the basis of the Soviet Declaration. In September, Putin himself proposed to sign a peace treaty without preliminary conditions. Abe called such an offer unacceptable.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that a peace treaty between the two countries does not mean the transfer of Japanese islands. Bloomberg columnist noted that Moscow may try to preserve sovereignty over the Kuril Islands in one form or another. According to the Levada Center survey, only 17 percent of Russians are ready to support the transfer of part of Japan.
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