OREANDA-NEWS The program of the visit of the Prime Minister of Japan to Moscow provides only talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The current meeting of Prime Minister Abe and President Putin will be the 25th in a row. The previous talks in Singapore and Argentina lasted approximately 45 minutes, but this time two and a half hours have been allocated.

The Prime Minister was prepared to consider signing a peace Treaty if two Islands were transferred to Japan on the basis of the 1956 Declaration. President Putin at a meeting with Prime Minister Abe expects to understand how Japan can strengthen trusting relations with Russia without the influence of the United States, in particular with regard to security issues.

It is expected that Putin will touch upon the issue of the deployment of us missile defense systems in Japan, as well as the question of whether the us troops will be deployed on the [southern Kuril] Islands in case of their transfer to Japan... he wants to get guarantees that us troops will not be deployed. At the same time, the press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation [Dmitry] Peskov made it clear that the negotiations will be long, saying that none of the parties intends to sacrifice their national interests and the problem of the peace Treaty can not be solved overnight.

At least 72.9% of Japanese do not believe in reaching agreement with Russia on the signing of a peace Treaty, showed the results of a survey conducted by the TV company Fuji TV and Sahkei shimbun. At the same time, 20.4% believe that progress in the negotiations is possible.

The majority of respondents — 43.5 per cent — favoured the option that Japan should be given the Shikotan and Habomai Islands in the first place, while the other two — Iturup and Kunashir-should continue negotiations. Another 32.9% are in favor of the return of all four Islands at the same time, 10.1% offer only Shikotan and Habomai, and 7.3% believe that it is not necessary to demand the return of the Islands.

According to a sociological study, 57% of Japanese people have hopes for the success of negotiations with Russia, 37%, on the contrary, do not have any expectations in this regard. In addition, 38% of respondents believe that Japan should demand the return of the Islands of Shikotan and Habomai, and the other two to carry out joint Russian - Japanese economic activity.