About 71 percent of respondents were also opposed to a possible compromise in the issue – transferring Shikotan and the Habomai rocks to Japan and retaining control over the larger islands of Iturup and Kunashir.
Almost 70 percent of those polled also rejected another possible compromise that would involve recognizing Japan's claim to the islands but retaining long-term control over them.
More than half of respondents (56 percent) said that all of the islands must remain Russian, which they ranked as more important than signing a peace treaty with Japan to gain access to Japanese technologies.
Japan and Russia never signed a permanent peace treaty after World War II because of a disagreement over the islands, which Russia calls the Southern Kurils and Japan the Northern Territories. The islands were seized by the Soviet Union during World War II but Japan refused to recognize Soviet sovereignty over them.
