NO PROGRESS ON THE KURILES.

A Russian parliamentary delegation led by Duma speaker Ivan Rybkin visited Tokyo to push along the signing of a Russian-Japanese peace treaty, Kommersant-Daily reported May 3. But while Rybkin said that the accord was “95 percent” complete, there was no progress on the most important issue: settlement of the dispute between Tokyo and Moscow over control of the Kurile Islands which the Soviet authorities occupied at the end of World War II. The Moscow daily did see one important achievement from the trip, however. It said that parliamentarians were getting an education in foreign policy and might behave less outrageously in the future as a result.

“Clan Capitalism” Replaces “Clan Socialism.”