Russia Announces Military Plans for Disputed Kuril Islands
FILE – Kunashiri Island, one of four islands known as the Southern Kurils in Russia and Northern Territories in Japan
VoA: Russia’s defense minister says Moscow plans to build a military base on the Kuril Islands, along with four Arctic bases that should be completed by 2018.
Sergei Shoigu told Russian news agencies Thursday the military is planning to put a large modern base on the islands with equipment necessary for border protection.
Shoigu said Russia has nearly completed several new bases with the largest on Kotelny Island in the Novosibirsk Archipelago.
Shoigu said there will also be military bases placed on Cape Schmidt, which is on the eastern coast of the Chukchi autonomous region, and Wrangel Island, which lies to the northeast of the mainland in the Chukchi Sea, a that a base on the Franz Josef Land Archipelago is near completion.
The new Russian bases are just a few hundred kilometers from the westernmost U.S. coastline.
Russia plans to build military bases in the Kuril Islands, Cape Schmidt, and Wrangel Island.
Shoigu also announced six Arctic airfields are being modernized, and should be completed by 2017.
The Kremlin announced its intentions to deploy its military to the Arctic in 2008, but has not stationed troops there yet.
The Kurils lie off of Russia’s eastern coast and some of the islands in the archipelago are also claimed by Japan, which it calls the Northern Territories.
The dispute between Russia and Japan over these islands has remained unresolved since World War Two. The conflict has kept the two nations from signing a formal peace treaty.
The Soviet Union seized the islands in 1945, shortly before Japan’s surrender in World War II.
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What does President Elect Trump about this? Since his election win, Trump has talked to Putin more than any other world leader But what is the U.S. intelligence community telling Trump? It seems not much as he has elected to only take 2 briefings and is leaving the daily task to Mike Pence.
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Japan PM says Russian missile deployment on disputed isles ‘regrettable’
Reuters: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Friday Russia’s deployment of missile systems on islands in the western Pacific isles that are also claimed by Tokyo was “regrettable”.
His comments came less than a month before Russian President Vladimir Putin is to visit Japan for talks aimed at progress on the decades-old territorial row. Moscow has already said it hoped the deployment would not damage efforts to settle the dispute.
Russian media reported on Tuesday that Bastion and Bal anti-ship missile systems were now in operation on the islands, part of an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean over which Russia and Japan have staked rival claims for 70 years.
The feud over the islands, called the southern Kuriles in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan, has kept Tokyo and Moscow from signing a peace treaty to formally end World War Two.
“The four islands are our country’s inherent territory. We have conveyed through diplomatic routes that this … is not compatible with our country’s position and is regrettable,” Abe told parliament’s upper house.
Delicate diplomacy is underway to prepare for the meeting between the Russian and Japanese leaders in Japan on Dec. 15-16. Both sides have said they hoped progress could be made towards settling the dispute.
Abe, who sees improved ties with Moscow as a counter-balance to a rising China, hopes the lure of economic cooperation will help ease a breakthrough when he meets Putin, given the hit to Russia’s economy from sluggish oil prices and Western sanctions imposed after its annexation of Crimea.
