LDPR faction in Duma drafts reply to Japan's Kurils bill.

MOSCOW, July 4 (Itar-Tass) -- The Liberal Democrat faction in the
State Duma plans to come up with a bill on the Kuril islands next week,
the faction's member, Sergei Ivanov, told the lower house on Friday.

"Russia must give a firm response to the Japanese parliament's
adoption of a resolution referring to the South Kuril islands as Japan's
indigenous territories," the legislator said.
Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed regret both houses of
the Japanese parliament had voted for amendments to the law on special
measures to accelerate the solution of what was termed as the problem of
northern territories. The amendments declared four islands of the South
Kuril chain as Japan's indigenous land and expressed the determination to
exert the maximum efforts for the early return of the "northern
territories" as belonging to Japan.
The State Duma issued its own statement to urge the Japanese
legislators annul their bill. It also promised that it may link further
talks on a peace treaty with Japan to Tokyo's repudiation of its claim to
northern territories, if need be. The Russian leadership was advised to
take the State Duma's position into consideration in conducting further
negotiations with Japan.
Japan lays claim to four South Kuril islands - Iturup, Kunashir,
Shikotan and Khabomai - with reference to the bilateral treaty on trade
and borders of 1855, which set the border between the islands of Urup and
Iturup. The currently disputed islands where then under Japanese
jurisdiction.
Russia's fundamental counter-argument is the South Kuril islands were
taken over by the USSR at the end of World War II. Russia is the USSR's
legal successor and Russian sovereignty over the islands is not liable to
doubt. Japan keeps linking the conclusion of a peace treaty between the
two countries to the solution of the territorial dispute.


.Armenian, Azerbaijani,Russian public figures visit Nagorno-Karabakh.


BAKU, July 4 (Itar-Tass) -- A one-and-a-half-hour meeting with
Azerbaijan's President Ilkham Aliyev was the last event of a tour of
Nagorno-Karabakh, Yerevan and Baku by Armenian, Azerbaijani and Russian
public figures.
"There was a fundamental and no easy discussion of all aspects of
relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia," Russia's special presidential
representative, Mikhail Shvydkoi, told Itar-Tass over the telephone.
The meeting was arranged on Friday evening at the initiative of
Azerbaijani and Armenian ambassadors in Russia, Polad Bul-bul Ogly and
Armen Smbatian. Before the visit to Baku the intellectuals from both
countries visited Nagorno-Karabakh and also Yerevan and were received by
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan.
"The presidents of both countries appreciated our tour. It looks like
it raised some hopes," Shvydkoi said. "We agreed that by time of the
presidents' meeting, due on July 17 in Moscow we - the ambassadors of
Azerbaijan and Armenia in Russia Polad Bul-bul Ogly and Armen Smbatian and
yours truly - will draft proposals for humanitarian cooperation between
the two countries. These proposals will contribute to the negotiating
process between Armenia and Azerbaijan."
"One should say that just as the president of the Republic of Armenia,
Serzh Sargsyan, the president of Azerbaijan accepts the negotiating
process. He is aware that it is the last chance not to be missed by any
means and that it will allow for finding an early settlement of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict on the basis of the Meindorf declaration on
Nagorno-Karabakh, signed at the Russian presidential residence near Moscow
on November 2, 2008.
"Both presidents said that the 15-year-long neither-war-nor-peace
situation considerably harmed relations between the two states," Shvydkoi
went on to say. After the losses both countries have sustained over these
fifteen years "it is very hard to eliminate the shortfalls that there have
emerged in the negotiating process."