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Why do Russia think they have anywhere near a decent claim for the Southern Kuril Islands?

• As the Ainu people have been split between Japan and Russia, native inhabitants don't really come into this. From a development point of view, simple economics suggests that Russia's immense size prevents the East from improving economically, and so the islands would see far more success under Japanese rule. Proximity (as used by Argentina against the UK) would be in Japan's favour, but this is a very poor way to dish out borders, as total size of the country is more important. Russia is a huge country, and so is subject to diseconomies of scale in government. The East appears to serve a primary purpose as "raw materials" for contributing to its western nucleus. As Japan is smaller and has a higher GDP per capita, it would benefit the islands far more than Russian rule. Russia seems to think that for joining the war against Japan it was owed something, hence why it claimed the islands for "compensation". This may have made sense 500 years ago, when the national borders were linked to ruler blood and dictators pushed their will around the globe, but in the present day and age, surely common sense needs to win the day? Indeed the Japanese had an empire, as did the Romans and the Chinese in the past, but the Manhattan Project was an atrocity committed against the Japanese people and in response we allowed the Russians to take their land? The Germans committed far worse actions than the Japanese, and while we didn't nuke two of their major cities, both countries lost similar amounts of land. Russia is a militaristic modern imperial power in my view and I'd like to know what other people feel about the issue. What is the modern justification for Russian rule over the Kuril islands (and/or southern Sakhalin)?

• Answer:

  It's simple - they are still probably the second most powerful military force in the world.