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Arriving on Matua: a photo released by the Russian Defense Ministry shows a Bastion rocket launcher
Photo: Russian Defense Ministry Press / dpa
For decades, Japan and Russia have been fighting a territorial dispute over the Kuril Islands in the Pacific.
The Russian Defense Ministry has now substantiated its territorial claims with a video.
The published material shows the arrival of a missile defense system on Matua Island.
The Kuril archipelago between the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula and the Japanese island of Hokkaido fell to the Soviet Union after the Second World War and is now part of Russia.
The Tokyo government has claimed the southern part of the archipelago for decades.
This also includes the uninhabited volcanic island of Matua.
The conflict over the islands keeps Tokyo and Moscow from signing a peace treaty to officially seal the end of World War II to this day.
Increasingly expanded military presence
In recent years Moscow has increasingly tried to expand its military presence on the islands. In 2016, Russia already deployed missile defense systems on two of the four southernmost Kuril Islands. In the following years Moscow built an air base on the island of Iturup, where fighter jets were stationed.
The video now published by the Russian Ministry of Defense shows amphibious vehicles leaving a missile carrier and then driving along the coast.
As Moscow announced, exercises are now to take place on the island.
There are also plans to build staff accommodation and hangars for the vehicles as well as the expansion of further infrastructure on the island.
As the British Guardian reports, the Bastion rocket launcher is able to hit sea targets from a distance of up to 5000 kilometers.
Russia has the sovereign right to deploy its armed forces anywhere on its own territory where it is deemed necessary, according to the Guardian from the Kremlin.
Russia values relations with Japan and continues to seek an agreement.
asc / Reuters