MOSCOW – Russia said on Tuesday it had deployed a number of its new S-300V4 missile defense systems for combat duty on a disputed chain of islands near Japan, a move that is likely to anger Tokyo.
The Russian Defence Ministry’s Zvezda TV station said the mobile air defense system designed to counter ballistic and aerial attacks was on Iturup, one of four islands held by Russia that Japan claims and calls the Northern Territories.
“Short-range anti-aircraft missile systems are already on duty on the island of Iturup in Sakhalin Region. Now the air defense ‘heavy artillery’ has arrived. The so-called large air defense system: the S-300V4,” Zvezda said.
The Soviets seized the islands, known as the Southern Kuriles, at the end of World War Two and a territorial row over them has prevented the two sides signing a formal peace treaty since and strained relations for years.
Japan is highly sensitive to military moves by Russia on the strategically important chain of islands that stretch northeast from Japan’s Hokkaido to the Russian Far East region of Kamchatka.
Russia said in October it planned to deploy the missile system on the islands for the first time, but that the move would be part of military drills and not for combat duty.
The deployment comes not long after former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who mounted a push to resolve the dispute and tried to win over Russian President Vladimir Putin, announced he was stepping down in August.
Related posts:
France, Germany, Italy ask UK not to waste Time while Leaving the EU
Area around Fukushima is now a radioactive wasteland that will be uninhabitable for decades
Refusing any potential solutions in Syria: West slams Russia's UNSC resolution aiming at peace
Local news anchor uncovers another Soros-controlled foundation, the Partnership for a New American E...
Joe Quinn Press TV Debate: Was the Paris terror attack blowback from Western support of terrorists i...
Russia’s Actions in Ukraine Trigger World Wide Consequences