Since he came to power, Putin has main-
tained the inheritance of Russian-Japanese bilateral relationship. During the
past four years the bilat-
eral
political relations have been by no means a plain sailing. In between, there was a one-year-and
-a-half cool down period, plumbing into another low ebb in the history of bilateral relations. From
the second half of 2002, the bilateral ties have rebounded onto a forward development track. But dif-
fering economic development degrees between the two countries impede their economic complemen-
tariness and the lack of necessary investment environment in Russia results in a sluggish development
of bilateral economic and trade relations. Whether their relations will develop smoothly in the future
will mainly depend on whether they can come to a territorial compromise, whether they will tap the
potentials of economic cooperation, and the extent of impact of their domestic political and interna-
tional factors on their bilateral relationship.