Russia to Deploy New Weapons on Disputed Kuril Islands

Russia plans to deploy new weapons on islands that are at the center of a decades-long territorial dispute with Japan, according to former President Dmitry Medvedev, who’s the current deputy head of the country’s Security Council.

The strategic role of the Kuril Islands will increase “including stationing new weapons there,” Medvedev said Tuesday on the X social-media platform. “We don’t give a damn about the ‘feelings of the Japanese’ concerning the so-called ‘Northern territories’. These are not ‘disputed territories,’ but Russia.”