Russia plans to name an uninhabited northwestern Pacific island in Japan’s Northern Territories after Richard Sorge, a Soviet spy who operated in Japan before the Pacific War, according to the Sakhalin branch of the Russian Geographical Society.
The island is part of what Russia calls the Lesser Kurils.
The Lesser Kurils are the islands of Shikotan and Habomai of Japan’s Northern Territories.
The Russian government is expected to formally approve the decision shortly.
The branch announced on Tuesday that a plaque bearing Sorge’s name will be installed on the island. It said that the naming will help legally establish the immutability of Russia’s Far Eastern borders.
The move is seen as an attempt to reinforce the status quo of Russia’s effective control over the northwestern Pacific islands that were seized from Japan by Soviet troops in the closing days of World War II.
