Moscow ready to talk with Tokyo on imperial Russian treasure

February 23, 2019

Moscow--The Russian government is ready to have talks with the Japanese side if new evidence emerges to suggest the existence of Imperial Russian treasure that should be returned from Japan, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Friday.

Zakharova made the remark at a press conference, following recent Russian media reports claiming that Japan is obliged to return treasure that the Imperial Russian government and its supporters traded for weapons around the 1917 Russian Revolution.

The right-wing media have revisited the issue since last month, in the context of protests against Japan's claims for four Russian-held islands at the center of the two countries' territorial dispute.

Some reports quoted experts as saying that Russian treasure traded to Japan, including gold bullion, totaled some 80 billion dollars.

Zakharova received questions about the treasure issue at a press conference early this month but deferred answering the questions until Friday.

According to her, Russia had asked Japan through diplomatic channels to investigate the matter and received a response that there was no Russian treasure in Japan that should be returned.

The spokeswoman suggested that the issue of Imperial Russian treasure is not a topic of talks between the two governments now but could be discussed again, depending on the situation. Jiji Press