GOVERNOR WARNS AGAINST GIVE-AWAY OF KURIL ISLANDS.

The governor of Russia’s Far Eastern Sakhalin region weighed in again yesterday with a demand that federal authorities make no territorial concessions to Japan in talks on the status of the four disputed Kuril Islands. Igor Farkhutdinov praised proposals for “wide-ranging economic and cultural cooperation with Japan,” but warned the Kremlin against making deals on the islands in return. (Itar-Tass, June 2)

Opposition to territorial concessions on the islands issue is strong in Russia’s Far East. Some politicians there have charged that the Kremlin is secretly negotiating the give-away of the Kurils. They have also accused Japanese leaders of using ongoing negotiations on a Russian-Japanese peace treaty and on economic cooperation proposals as a pretext to regain control of the islands. (See the Monitor, April 6, 29) The Kremlin itself appeared to echo that sort of logic when Yeltsin spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky told reporters on June 2 that Russia would like authorities in Tokyo to stop “hampering the investments of Japanese businessmen in the Kuril Islands.”

FRESH CONTROVERSY OVER DEATH PENALTY.