MOSCOW. Nov 9 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, in a newspaper interview published on Thursday, argued that questioning Russian sovereignty over the South Kuril islands meant seeking to revise the results of World War II.
"The South Kuril islands have become part of our country under agreements between allied powers after the end of World War II and are an inseparable part of Russian territory. I believe that any statement about the illegal character of Russia's jurisdiction over these islands are an attempt to revise the results of World War II, which may have completely unpredictable consequences," Ivanov told the Russian paper Izvestia.
"This means all discussions on this subject will remain discussions," he said.
He was commenting on the new Japanese prime minister's declared desire to seek to have the islands returned to Japan.