Maxwell, Couldn't agree more. Russia will never give up the Kurils as its a matter of national survival. Were they to return to Japanese rule, they would allow the US would militarise them and further encircle and threaten Russian access to the open ocean. Never going to happen, no way. and considering Japans' agression and horrendous wartime atrocities (particulary against the Chinese & Koreans) the Japanese deserve not a single grain of Kuril sand.

Marzipan, you really need to read a (honest) history book. The Japanese launched war against Tsarist Russia in 1904 to grab territory, a continuation of the Imperial Japanese push into China and ongoing domination of Korea. Russia lost badly, and was forced to yield its access to Port Arthur, and lost the southern half of Sakhalin Island. The point here is that the Japanese unilaterally abrogated the Treaty of Saint Peterberg 1875, where Tsarist Russia recognised Japanese soverignty over the Kurils (and withdrew its colonies) in exchange for Japanese recognition of Russia rights over Sakhalin. Japanese agression negated the treaty, and it took 40 years before the Soviets could reassert their claims. The morale of this story is that if your commit agression against your neighbours, and then lose, the loss of territory is a real possibility. Germany has permanently lost sovereignty over her traditional eastern baltic territories, and you don't hear Angela Merkel whining constantly and demanding the return of Danzig (now Gdansk) and Pomeranian in Western Poland...