PUTIN vs JAPAN? Tokyo vows to respond to Russian movement of missiles to disputed islands
RUSSIA'S 'significant' deployment of missiles to disputed island territories in the Pacific Ocean has sparked a furious response from Japan.
Russia has sent missiles to disputed islands off Japan
Anti-ship weapons have been sent to the Kuril islands - uninhabited lands seized by the Soviet military at the end of the Second World War.
Putin's armed forces announced that its state-of-the-art Bastion and Bal anti-ship missile systems were deployed there, this week.
Moscow and Tokyo have been locked in a seven-decade dispute over ownership of the islands.
Fumio Kishida, the Japanese foreign minister said Tokyo will respond
The desolate Kuril islands are at the centre of a row between Russia and Japan preventing peace deal
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We consider this [development] to have serious significance
Fumio Kishida, the Japanese foreign minister, has reacted with anger over the move.
He said: “We consider this [development] to have serious significance, and will respond in an appropriate manner, after studying the details.”
However, the minister said he was hoping a peace deal with Moscow could be concluded when Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader visits Japan in December.
But it may not be so easy as Tokyo claims sovereignty of the islands, the Northern Territories in Japan, must be resolved before a peace treaty can be concluded.
While Moscow says the two issues are separate and that it occupied the islands legitimately in 1945.
On Wednesday Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia’s defence ministry had grounds for deploying the anti-ship missiles, though he did not explain the stance.
Russia currently does not see why the deployment of missiles would hinder a peace deal, Peskov said.
The missiles on the islands have a range of up to 300km (188 miles) and have also been deployed by Russia in Crimea, which the Kremlin annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
The fresh concern in Japan comes as it emerged Russia is also planning to relaunch “nuclear trains,” a railroad-based weapons system used by the Soviet Union during the late 1980s.
Under the Barguzin system intercontinental ballistic missiles, their launchers and command units are concealed within train carriages which travel around Russia.
This allows them to avoid detection by enemy satellite.
The Kuril islands are uninhabited but central to Russia - Japan dispute (pictured Kunashir island)
The trains which will be virtually the same as ordinary passenger vehicles are expected to enter service between 2018 and 2020.
The Kremlin’s decision to send Bastion missiles to Kaliningrad, Russia’s exclave on the Baltic Sea, recently infuriated Nato.
Russia was accused of "aggressive military posturing" over the move.