Russia deploys advanced S-300 missile system to island disputed with Japan

Russia says it has deployed its advanced S-300V4 air defense missile system for combat duty on one of four islands in the Kuril chain disputed with Japan.

“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 TV, the television channel of Russia’s Ministry of Defense, reported on Tuesday.

The island, referred to as Iturup in Russia and Etorofu in Japan, is one of the four Russian-held islands off Japan’s northern region of Hokkaido.

The island is part of the Southern Kurils, known as the Northern Territories in Japan.

Later in the day, Russia’s Eastern Military District also said in a statement that units of Russian S-300V4 air defense missile system had entered combat duty on the Kuril Islands.

On Wednesday, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said his government had filed a protest with Russia over the deployment.

The four southernmost islands of the Kuril chain — Habomai, Shikotan, Etorofu, and Kunashiri — have been disputed between Russia and Japan since the end of World War II.

Tokyo says they were illegally seized by the Soviet Union following Japan’s surrender at the end of World War II.

Moscow, however, cites the San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1951, which abolished Japan’s sovereignty over the archipelago, describing Tokyo’s claims as unfounded.

The territorial dispute has prevented the two countries from concluding a postwar peace treaty.

The standoff has also hindered bilateral investment and trade cooperation between the two sides.

Moscow has military bases on the Kuril Pacific archipelago, and in 2016 angered Tokyo by starting the construction of new modern compounds for its troops stationed on the islands.

In November 2018, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to accelerate talks on a peace treaty based on a 1956 joint declaration that mentions handing back two of the islands — Shikotan and the Habomai islet group — to Japan.

Further progress, however, did not materialize.

Major differences still hinder peace talks with Japan over contested islands: Russian FM

The Russian foreign minister says significant agreements still exist in the way of reaching a peace deal with Japan over a group of disputed islands.

The Tuesday move is likely to anger Tokyo, which is highly sensitive to military moves by Russia on the disputed islands.

In October, Russia said that 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 Abe, who mounted a push to resolve the dispute, announced he was stepping down in August.

The S-300V4 is an advanced, highly mobile air defense missile system designed to protect vital military and administrative facilities and groupings of forces against strikes by ballistic and aerodynamic air attack weapons. It is the fourth version of the upgraded S-300V battlefield anti-aircraft missile system.

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