Japan protests against Russian missile deployment on disputed islands

Japan's government has lodged a protest after Russia's military deployed a number of its new S-300V4 missile defence systems for combat duty on a disputed chain of islands near Japan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said on Wednesday.

A territorial row over the islands, which the Soviets seized at the end of World War Two, has prevented the two countries from signing a formal peace treaty. Japan calls the islands the Northern Territories and Russia calls them the Kurils.