Deputy Prime Minister and presidential envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District Yury Trutnev has said that Russia will withdraw from Japan the right to fish near the Kuril Islands.

“We have already, in fact, limited their right (to fish), and by their efforts. They refused to pay for fishing quotas near the Kuril Islands. Accordingly, this right will be taken away from them,” Trutnev told reporters in Vladivostok.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow was suspending the Russian-Japanese agreement on cooperation in fishing for marine living resources.

Zakharova’s commentary, published on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website, notes that Tokyo “has taken a line on ‘freezing’ payments” due under the agreement on certain issues of cooperation in the field of fishing for marine living resources, which was concluded between the governments of Russia and Japan in 1998.

Tokyo “delays” signing the annual executive document on providing gratuitous technical assistance to the Sakhalin Oblast, “which is an integral element of ensuring the functioning of this intergovernmental agreement,” Smolenskaya Square added.

At the same time, the Japanese government intends to continue consultations with Russia on the agreement on cooperation in fishing for marine living resources so that fishermen can work safely under the agreement.