Japan is provoking tensions, Russia says

Russia slapped down Japanese assertions that a deal was in the offing to resolve a decades-old dispute over a chain of islands, accusing Tokyo of distorting agreements struck with Moscow to break the deadlock.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is making a push toward a treaty with Russia over the islands and is due to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin this month, but Moscow has shown no willingness to concede control over the islands.

Russia and Japan have not signed a post-World War II peace treaty due to their rival claims to four Pacific islands, called the Southern Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan.