Since May 2016 Russia-Japan relations have entered a new stage characterized by the unprecedented activity aimed at improving relations in a comprehensive way: political and security dialogue, confidence building measures, new economic projects and people-to-people contacts. However, apart from the old problems, new limitations and asymmetries have emerged that hinder the development of bilateral relations against the background of power shift and changing strategic environment in East Asia. The article seeks to assess how deep is Russia-Japan rapprochement, what are the motivations of the two countries, major limitations, both domestic and external, expectation asymmetries and misperception gaps. It discusses the developments after the agreement between Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in November 2018 to facilitate negotiations on a peace treaty and territorial issue based on the Soviet-Japanese Declaration of 1956, and how tangible is a breakthrough. The article concludes by providing an argument for forging stronger Russia-Japan partnership and discusses the potential of bilateral relationship.

中文翻译：

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日俄关系的新阶段：和解及其局限性

自2016年5月以来，俄日关系进入了一个新阶段，其特点是史无前例的旨在全面改善关系的活动：政治与安全对话，建立信任措施，新的经济项目以及人与人之间的接触。但是，除了旧问题之外，在权力转移和东亚战略环境变化的背景下，新的局限性和不对称性也出现了，阻碍了双边关系的发展。本文旨在评估俄日和解的深度，两国的动机是什么，国内外的主要局限性，期望的不对称性和误解的差距。它讨论了俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京（Vladimir Putin）与日本首相安倍晋三（Shinzo Abe）在2018年11月达成协议以促进基于1956年《苏日宣言》的和平条约和领土问题的谈判之后的事态发展，以及有形的突破是如何的。文章最后提供了建立更牢固的俄日伙伴关系的论据，并讨论了双边关系的潜力。