Russia Entitled to Name Kuril Islands - Kremlin Spokesman About Japan's Protest

The Kuril Islands are Russia's territory so allocating names to five of them is Russia's sovereign right, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said earlier Tuesday Japan submitted a note of protest against Russia over allocating names to five unnamed Kuril Islands. This followed a move last week by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to approve the decision to name five Kuril Islands, which had previously been unnamed, after prominent Russian figures.

"Japan's position is well known. We highly appreciate the new positive dynamics of our bilateral relations… But still the Kuril Islands, of course, remain the territory of the Russian Federation. So in this case it is the sovereign right," Peskov told reporters.

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