Russia has stiffened its stance against advancing talks with Japan on a peace treaty, calling Tokyo's security alliance with the United States a threat and an impediment to improving bilateral ties, diplomatic sources said Saturday.
The position apparently reflects Russia's deteriorating relations with the United States over Washington's decision to withdraw from a Cold War-era nuclear arms control treaty.
It is a setback for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is seeking to resolve a decades-old territorial dispute with Moscow over three islands and a group of islets off Hokkaido and sign a broad agreement on a postwar peace treaty in June when Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to visit Japan for the Group of 20 summit.