L’AQUILA, Italy — President Dmitry Medvedev told Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso on Thursday that “several steps” taken by Japan had hampered any chance of a resolution to a dispute over the Kuril Islands.

“The president noted that any discussion on a peace treaty and territorial problems requires the appropriate atmosphere,” Medvedev’s foreign policy aide Sergei Prikhodko told reporters. “This atmosphere has not improved lately after a number of steps by the Japanese side, which have heightened emotions.”

Japan’s parliament passed a bill this month stating that the islands were an integral part of Japan — something Russia said was “inappropriate and unacceptable.”

Medvedev said Thursday that Russian lawmakers had adopted a resolution that required him to strengthen his position on the islands, which the Soviet Union seized at the end of World War II, until Japan’s parliament rescinds its law.

“Unfortunately, we were not satisfied with what Russia explained today,” a Japanese government official said.
Japan had hoped for some kind of a concession after Medvedev indicated in London earlier this year he was ready to suggest an “unorthodox solution.”

But Medvedev and Aso did agree to speed talks and maintain dialogue, the Japanese official said.