Latest news with #KurilIslands
South China Morning Post
6 days ago
- General
- South China Morning Post
Putin meets Abe's widow, reflects on ex-PM's ‘dream' to strike Russia-Japan peace treaty
Russian President Vladimir Putin paid tribute to former prime minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday, saying he knew the slain Japanese leader had dreamed of finally concluding a post-second world war peace treaty. Advertisement No treaty was ever signed as the two countries could not resolve a dispute over the then-Soviet Union's seizure at the end of the war of four islands in the Southern Kuril chain, known in Japan as the Northern Territories. Russian media said Abe and Putin met altogether 27 times during the nearly nine years the Japanese leader was in office. Abe left office in 2020 and was assassinated two years later while making an election campaign speech. 'I know that his dream – and he truly strived to achieve this – was to conclude a peace treaty between our two countries. The situation is different now,' the Russian leader said. Putin, whose comments to Abe's widow in the Kremlin were reported by Russian news agencies, also said fulfilling that dream was not possible in the current international situation given the conflict in Ukraine Advertisement 'Your husband did a great deal for the development of Russian-Japanese relations. We had very good personal relations,' Putin was quoted as telling Akie Abe.
Reuters
7 days ago
- General
- Reuters
Russia's Putin praises Abe, says late Japanese PM wanted peace treaty
May 29 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin paid tribute to former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday, saying he knew the slain Japanese leader had dreamt of finally concluding a post-World War Two peace treaty. No treaty was ever signed as the two countries could not resolve a dispute over the then-Soviet Union's seizure at the end of the war of four islands in the Southern Kuril chain, known in Japan as the Northern Territories. Russian media said Abe and Putin met altogether 27 times during the nearly nine years the Japanese leader was in office. Abe left office in 2020 and was assassinated two years later while making an election campaign speech. "I know that his dream - and he truly strived to achieve this - was to conclude a peace treaty between our two countries. The situation is different now," the Russian leader said. Putin, whose comments to Abe's widow in the Kremlin were reported by Russian news agencies, also said fulfilling that dream was not possible in the current international situation given the conflict in Ukraine. "Your husband did a great deal for the development of Russian-Japanese relations. We had very good personal relations," Putin was quoted as telling Akie Abe. Russia's relations with Japan have been strained by Tokyo's support for sanctions imposed by Ukraine's Western allies over Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. All negotiations on clinching a peace treaty have been suspended. Akie Abe told Putin, according to the agencies, that her husband had wanted to meet Putin even after the start of the Ukraine conflict "but unfortunately circumstances were such that he was no longer able to meet you. His life was cut short."
Gizmodo
28-05-2025
- Climate
- Gizmodo
Cataclysmic 1831 Eruption Traced to Quadruple Volcano on Abandoned Soviet Island
This Cold War outpost concealed more than submarines—it hosted a devastating eruption that cooled the planet nearly 200 years ago. Scientists have finally solved a 200-year-old climatological mystery—and the answer was hiding out on a forgotten island. Late last year, a team of researchers revealed that a massive 1831 eruption from Zavaritski volcano, part of the remote Simushir Island chain, triggered global cooling in the Northern Hemisphere. A newly released satellite image shows these peaks—Milna, Zavaritski, Prevo, and Uratman—lined up end-to-end in a near-perfect row, forming one of the most geologically dramatic landforms in the Kuril Islands, a disputed chain between Russia and Japan. Simushir is part of the volatile Ring of Fire, where Earth's crust grinds and ruptures along tectonic plate boundaries. The 5-mile-long (8-kilometer) island features volcanic peaks visible from space. But one of them, it turns out, made an outsized and surprisingly recent impact on the world's climate. The team published its research describing the findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In 1831, the Northern Hemisphere cooled by nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit (nearly 1.1 degrees Celsius), throwing the climate into disarray and painting skies strange hues. Scientists long suspected a massive volcanic eruption was to blame, but its source remained unknown—until now. The recent study revealed that Zavaritski, Simushir's relatively modest 2,047-foot (624-meter) volcano was the culprit. Ash from the eruption was later found in polar ice cores, solving the nearly 200-year-old mystery of which volcano triggered the global cooling. 'The moment in the lab when we analysed the two ashes together, one from the volcano and one from the ice core, was a genuine eureka moment. I couldn't believe the numbers were identical,' said volcanologist William Hutchison, a researcher at the University of St Andrews and lead author of the study, in a university release. 'After this, I spent a lot of time delving into the age and size of the eruption in Kuril records to truly convince myself that the match was real.' Though the true identity of the volcano is a surprise, it's not shocking. Simushir's remote location and the fact its use by the Soviets as a secret nuclear submarine base kept it shrouded in secrecy for decades. (The Soviets used one of the island's flooded volcanic craters to dock its vessels). According to LiveScience, the island's military use ended in 1994, and the island is now abandoned—its calderas, bays, and rusting Soviet infrastructure slowly being reclaimed by nature. Though none of Simushir's volcanoes have erupted since 1957, they still loom large—both literally and in historical memory. Milna, the tallest of the bunch at 5,050 feet (1,540 m), last erupted in 1914, and the volcano Zavaritski erupted in 1957. But others appear dormant; Uratman, the easternmost peak in the chain in the above image, may not have erupted for 12,000 years—hence it being a reliable harbor for Soviet subs. The satellite image showcases a unique spit of land, one with a remarkable history of human occupation and world-altering volcanology.
