President Vladimir Putin said Russia would strive to reach an elusive deal on a territorial dispute and normalise relations with Japan ahead of his visit to the country later this week.
Putin will arrive in Japan on Thursday for talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the hope of breaking the ice on an agreement over the Kuril Islands, seized by Soviet troops in 1945 and demanded back by Tokyo ever since.
The dispute has prevented the countries from signing a formal treaty to end World War II and has hampered their bilateral ties.
"The absence of a peace treaty between Russia and Japan is an anachronism inherited from the past and this anachronism should be eliminated," Putin said in an interview with Japan's Nippon TV and Yomiuri newspaper, according to a transcript released by the Kremlin.
"But how to do this is a difficult question."
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