Russia's Medvedev says Moscow will deploy new weapons on Kuril Islands -TASS

Senior Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday that Moscow will deploy new weapons on the Kuril Islands which are at the centre of a territorial dispute with Japan, the TASS state news agency TASS reported. Russia and Japan have never signed a peace treaty formally ending the conflict between them that dates back to World War Two, with the Kuril Islands - which Japan calls the Northern Territories - remaining the primary stumbling block between the two sides.

TASS cited Medvedev as saying that Russia was not against signing a peace treaty with Japan, but only if Tokyo no longer disputed the islands' status.