[Tintin Storm]

As it is known, the Japanese authorities for many years have been trying to reclaim the Russian Kuril Islands, the so-called «northern territories» by the Japanese themselves (Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai Islands), which had come under Russian jurisdiction following the World War II. The Russian authorities do not recognize the territorial claims of Japan on these territories, because the ownership over the islands of Russia is confirmed in a number of international acts, and Moscow has repeatedly stated that these territories cannot be traded.
However, on April 19, 2019, from the Japanese publisher «Tokyo Shimbun», it became known that the Japanese government has plans to refuse to conclude an agreement on a peace treaty with Russia during the visit of Russian President V. Putin to Japan in June within the framework of the G20 summit. Japanese Prime Minister S. Abe hoped at this time to resolve the territorial problem by returning the islands of Habomai and Shikotan, but the Russian side has no plans to transfer the territories to Japan, which has been repeatedly stated.
Nevertheless, Moscow is more than confident that if the islands of Japan are returned, American troops may appear on them, which is in keeping with the Japanese-American security agreement. The Russian authorities insist that Japan recognize Russian sovereignty in the "northern territories", which Tokyo could not do, so the contradictions could not be overcome. Thus, Japan continues to look for other ways to take away the islands from Russia.
Thus, already on April 21, 2019, the Japanese publisher «Sankei» reported that Japan, without being able to reach an agreement with Russia directly, plans to use a trick. After all, everyone knows that the Arctic is considered a «golden residential» of the Russian Federation due to the concentration in the region of huge reserves of blue fuel and oil, and that Moscow, today, is implementing LNG projects in the region in order to obtain alternative sources of energy production.
At present, it is known that the Russian company «Novatek», which is one of the largest producers of natural gas in Russia, is implementing the «Arctic LNG-2» project and is looking for investors. And despite the fact that many European countries were interested in construction, Moscow was planning to engage Beijing, Riyadh or Tokyo, in particular Japanese «Mitsui» and «Mitsubishi» companies, to cooperate. Taking advantage of this, Tokyo is going to provide financial support to its companies by providing half of the total investment in order to gain an advantage in negotiations over its «northern territories» and use «Arctic LNG-2» as a trump card. The Japanese hope that Russian assistance in the Arctic will play a role at the upcoming G-20 summit, which will be held in late June 2019 in Osaka.
It should be recalled that in 1956 the Soviet Union and Japan signed a declaration that suggests the possibility of studying the issue of the transfer of Tokyo to the islands of Habomai and Shikotan. Last year, Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to speed up the negotiation process on a peace treaty based on the 1956 Soviet-Japanese Declaration.