Putin shows off dog to Japanese journalists before trip

Vladimir Putin plays with his Akita-inu dog Yume

Russian President Vladimir Putin showed off an Akita dog given to him by Japan to journalists from the country yesterday before telling them there is a “chance” to resolve a 70-year territorial dispute during an upcoming visit by him to the Asian country.

Moscow and Tokyo have never formally signed a treaty ending World War II because of a dispute over the ownership of the Kuril Islands, a chain of volcanic islands that run between Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula and Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido.

Putin told Japanese journalists that it’s difficult for him to say how big the chance is “because it depends on factors including the flexibility of our partners,” according to an interview transcript published by the Kremlin yesterday.

There had been some expectation of a breakthrough on the issue during talks between Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Japan on Thursday and Friday, but officials on both sides appear to be urging caution.

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow yesterday that a resolution to the issue would involve several rounds of “painstaking” negotiation.

Putin said Moscow could live with the status quo. “We think that we have no territorial problems. It’s Japan that thinks that is has a territorial problem with Russia,” he said.

The interview with Putin in the Kremlin began by the Russian leader showing the Japanese journalists a dog called Yume he was given by Japan in 2012. Putin fed the Akita in front of the journalists, who told him they were “scared.”

A Japanese official said last week that his Russian counterparts had rejected the idea of presenting Putin with another dog, a companion for Yume, during Putin’s forthcoming visit. AP