OREANDA-NEWS "According to the notification sent by the Russian authorities to our coast guard, in the period from April 18 to 22, missile firing exercises are planned in the area of Iturup Island," he said (quoted by TASS).

According to him, this territory includes an area that Japan considers its territorial waters.

Exercises of the Pacific Fleet of the Russian Federation started last week. As Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, during the first stage of the exercises, issues of readiness for the use of weapons by strategic missile submarines were worked out.

From April 18, the final stage of the sudden inspection of the TOPF starts. Strategic missile carriers will make flights to the central part of the Pacific Ocean with simulated strikes on the ship groups of a conditional enemy.

Japan regularly objects to Russian military scientists in the Kuril Islands area. In response, the Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly stressed that the southern Kuril Islands are an integral part of Russian territory.

Earlier, the Japanese Foreign Ministry again used the wording about the "illegal occupation" of the "northern territories" (as the country calls the southern Kuriles) in the "Blue Book on Diplomacy" for 2023. The book notes that the Kuril problem is "the longest unresolved issue in Japanese-Russian relations."

At the same time, the authors of the "Blue Book" noted Tokyo's intention to continue to adhere to the course of "concluding a peace treaty with Russia."

Back in March 2022, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Moscow had refused to negotiate a peace treaty with Tokyo. The ministry then noted that the Japanese authorities deliberately chose "an anti-Russian course instead of developing mutually beneficial cooperation and good neighborliness."