Moscow and Tokyo need to overcome “territorial problems” in order make progress on signing of a World War II peace treaty, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Thursday in Vladivostok while attending the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) plenary session.

“We must solve our territorial problems and accelerate the process of concluding a peace treaty. And this is a common understanding,” said Abe.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on his part said that everything should be done in a way that the citizens of the Kuril Islands “do not feel like victims of geopolitical events of past years.”

He added that Japan's military ties with the US made it hard for the peace treaty to be signed.

Going on to discuss the recent street protests in Moscow, the Russian leader said the demonstrations could have good results.

“I think that they have the right to it and sometimes this leads to a positive result, because it shakes the authorities,” he said.

The Russian leader noted however that the protesters should be "guided not by their own selfish, group interests, but by the interests of the country and people. And of course everybody should act within the established rules and laws."

The fifth Eastern Economic Forum runs in Vladivostok between September 4-6.