MOSCOW, May 13. /TASS/. Claims on the handover of Russia’s Kuril Islands to Japan in exchange for economic aid, voiced in a report of the Slon publication, is nonsense and an example of primitive thinking, a high-ranking source in the Russian Foreign Ministry told TASS Friday.

"All that is written there is utter nonsense. There’s nothing further from reality than that," the source said.

"Thinking that in our dialogue with Japan, the talk is about ‘sale’ or handover of the Kuril Islands in exchange for economic aid, and presenting it as a ‘new approach’ Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe described is primitive," he said.

The source said this is a primitive idea of what serious powers speak about when discussing complicated issues.

"Primitive thinking and nonsense," the source said.

The problem of the southern Kuril Islands is the key obstacle to a complete normalization of the Russian-Japanese ties and the signing of a peace treaty. After the Second World War, all Kuril Islands were made part of the Soviet Union. But Japan does not agree that the islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai island group belong to Russia. Tokyo calls the islands "Northern Territories".