TOKYO, February 7. /TASS/. The Russian Embassy in Japan has lodged a protest with the Japanese Foreign Ministry over the actions of far-right radicals who attempted to gain entry to the Russian diplomatic mission in Tokyo, the embassy told TASS on Monday.
On February 7, Japan marks Northern Territories (the way the South Kuril Islands are referred to in Japan) Day, but the embassy emphasized that Japanese far-right radical elements began to "celebrate" a day earlier. "About noon (on Sunday, February 6 - TASS), a group of belligerent rogues attempted to gain entry to the embassy starting a brawl with police units guarding the entrance. As a result, during a certain period, both the entry and exit of the premises of the Russian foreign mission were blocked," the embassy noted, emphasizing that "due to the aforementioned events, the embassy lodged a resolute protest with Japan's Foreign Ministry."
The embassy also noted that the actions of the far-right radicals were accompanied by an "unprecedentedly loud cacophony consisting of anti-Russian slogans arduously shouted over a microphone which created a serious disturbance to the normal work and relaxation of the diplomatic mission's employees and family members." The situation around other Russian foreign establishments on that day "was relatively calm," the embassy said.
Earlier on Monday, during his address at a nationwide rally for the return of the Northern Territories, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida emphasized that he intended to conduct persistent consultations with Russia in order to conclude a peace treaty based on all previously achieved agreements and regretted that this issue hadn't yet been resolved.
Since the middle of the last century, Moscow and Tokyo have been intermittently negotiating a peace agreement following World War II. The main obstacle to its conclusion is the question of the ownership of the southern part of the Kuril ridge. In 1945, the entire archipelago was incorporated into the Soviet Union, but the Japanese side disputes the ownership of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan, and the group of now uninhabited islands, which in Japan is called Habomai. The Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly stressed that Russian sovereignty over them, which has the appropriate international legal form, is beyond question.