MOSCOW. Jan 18 (Interfax) - Moscow should take a tough stance in the talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the belonging of the Kuril Islands to Russia, Gennady Zyuganov, the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) and its parliamentary faction in the State Duma, said.
"The president, the prime minister, and the legislative assembly represented by the Duma and the Federation Council have no right to give up any parts of our land. It belongs to the people as a whole, and it needs to be reliably protected. This principled position has to be observed by the entire leadership of the Russian Federation," Zyuganov said at a briefing on Friday.
Talks with Abe on the peace treaty will begin in Moscow next week, he said.
"Any attempt to surrender our islands will mean a huge threat to the country's national security," Zyuganov said.
"Japan never fulfilled its obligations to drive the Americans from its territory," as it still hosts U.S. military bases, he said.
The people of Russia will never accept a decision "to give away any part of our land," Zyuganov said. He said he is certain that this step would inevitably provoke a flow of territorial claims by other neighbors of Russia.