Russia, the main successor state to the Soviet Union, and Japan have never signed a peace treaty formally ending their hostilities during World War Two, with the islands remaining the primary stumbling block. The islands are located off Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost main island, and were seized by the Soviet Union at the end of World War Two. Diplomats on both sides once spoke of the possibility of reviving a Soviet-era draft agreement that envisaged returning two of the four islands to Japan as part of a peace deal. But Russia withdrew from peace treaty talks with Japan and froze joint economic projects related to the islands in 2022 because of Japanese sanctions over Russia's war in Ukraine and relations have soured further since. Medvedev said he was respondidipng to comments by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida who he said had spoken in favour of a peace treaty with Russia.
"Nobody's against the peace treaty on the understanding that ... the 'territorial question' is closed once and for all in accordance with the constitution of Russia," Medvedev said on his official X account.
