Moscow authorities have approved a rally by the Left Front against the transfer of the Kuril Islands to Japan

The Moscow City Hall has approved a protest against the transfer of the Kuril Islands to Japan. The event will take place on Suvorovskaya Square on January 20.

As the coordinator of the Left Front movement Sergey Udaltsov said, initially several organizations intended to hold rallies, but in the end the action will be joint. The declared number of its participants is up to a thousand people.

• On January 22, a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will take place in Moscow. The issue of the Kuril Islands is expected to be discussed.
• In November, Russia and Japan promised to speed up the conclusion of a peace treaty based on the Soviet-Japanese declaration of 1956. Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov emphasized that this does not automatically entail the transfer of the islands to Japan.