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Tokyo skylineTOKYO, Mar 31The Japanese authorities have returned the harsh wording that the South Kuriles «are an integral part of Japan and are currently illegally occupied by Russia» in the «Blue Book of Diplomacy» for 2022. This was reported by the Kyodo agency, citing informed sources familiar with the text of the draft document. occupied by Russia,” the agency said. on the Russian special operation in Ukraine imposed several packages of sanctions against Moscow, in particular, excluded Russia from the most favored nation trade regime and imposed a ban on the export of 275 goods from March 18, including semiconductors, radars, sensors, lasers, communications equipment, recording devices and their components, software, components for tractors, gas turbine engines for i aircraft and their components, equipment for oil refining. From April 5, the export of luxury goods, including cars and jewelry, will also be banned to Russia.The State Duma deputy recalled the Volga in response to Japanese sanctionsRelations between Russia and Japan have been overshadowed by the absence of a peace treaty for many years. In 1956, the USSR and Japan signed a Joint Declaration in which Moscow agreed to consider the possibility of transferring Habomai and Shikotan to Japan after the conclusion of a peace treaty, and the fate of Kunashir and Iturup was not affected. The USSR hoped that the Joint Declaration would put an end to the dispute, while Japan considered the document only part of the solution to the problem, without abandoning claims to all the islands. Subsequent negotiations led to nothing, the peace treaty at the end of World War II was never signed. Serious opposition arose from the United States, which threatened that if Japan agreed to the transfer of only two of the four islands to it, this would affect the process of returning Okinawa to Japanese sovereignty (the Agreement on the Return of Okinawa to Japan entered into force in 1972). Moscow's position is that the islands became part of the USSR following the Second World War, and the sovereignty of the Russian Federation over them is beyond doubt. In 2018, in Singapore, following a summit meeting between the leaders of Russia and Japan, the Japanese Prime Minister agreed to speed up the negotiation process on a peace treaty on the basis of the Joint Soviet-Japanese Declaration of 1956. Last week, Moscow, in response to Tokyo's unfriendly steps, announced its refusal to negotiate a peace treaty with Tokyo, the termination of visa-free travel for Japanese citizens to the southern Kuril Islands and the withdrawal from the dialogue on establishing joint economic activities in the southern Kuriles.Japan has taken an anti-Russian stance according to US patterns, Patrushev said