KURIL ISLANDS DISPUTE: POLITICAL, HISTORICAL AND LAW PARAMETERS
The article presents the Kuril Islands issue and dispute in contemporary Russia-Japan relations in a vast historical, legal and geopolitical context. The attention is drawn to mostly ignored legal implications of full and unconditional surrender, depriving Japan of sovereignty and making any reference to former status of islands irrelevant. The US role in concluding the Treaties of Portsmouth, San Francisco and the Soviet-Japanese Declaration of 1956 is highlighted. American pressure on Japan at all crucial stages, US military presence on the Japanese territory, the 200-mile economic zone under UN Convention on the Law of the Sea constitute inter alia a fundamental change of circumstances making provisions of the Soviet-Japanese Declaration of 1956 inapplicable on rebus sic stantibus basis. As there has never been a peace treaty with Germany the imperative of one with Japan seems dubious.