Why does Russia want to dig up the ‘greatest spy of all time’ Richard Sorge from a Tokyo cemetery?

Russia wants to recover the cremated remains of a man frequently described as the greatest spy of all time from a cemetery in Tokyo and to rebury him on the Southern Kuril Islands.

The proposed location for Richard Sorge’s last resting place is provocative given that Russia and Japan – which refers to the chain of four main islands as the Northern Territories – have been in dispute over the sovereignty of the islands since the end of World War II.

In a recent address to the lower house of the Russian parliament, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov revealed that Moscow was looking into recovering Sorge’s remains from Tama Cemetery, in the western Tokyo suburb of Fuchu, and transferring them to the Southern Kurils.

Japan insists the islands should have been returned to Japanese control after being seized by Soviet forces in the closing stages of the war. Successive governments in Moscow and Tokyo have held talks on the question of sovereignty and an agreement on joint development and even the return of some of the islands to Japanese control has appeared close on occasions, but Russia’s resolve to retain control of the territory has hardened under President Vladimir Putin.