Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested that Japan should sign a peace treaty before the end of the year without any preliminary conditions, he said at a plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum, TASS reports.

"Let’s sign a peace agreement - not now, but before the end of the year - without any preliminary conditions," Putin suggested, addressing Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. "And then we will continue to address all controversial issues as friends based on the peace treaty," the president went on. "And it seems to me that it would help us solve all the problems that we failed to solve for 70 years." Putin noted that this "simple idea" came to his mind "right now and right here." The negotiations to address controversial issues between Russia and Japan have been in place for 70 years, he said. "We’ve conducted negotiations for 70 years," the president stated. "Shinzo said, ‘let’s change the approaches.’ Let’s [change them.]"