MOSCOW, December 17 (Reuters): Russia said on Monday it had built new barracks to house its troops on a disputed chain of islands near Japan and would build more facilities for armoured vehicles, a move likely to anger Tokyo which wants Moscow to reduce its military activity there.
The announcement, from the Ministry of Defence, said Moscow planned to move troops into four housing complexes on two of the four disputed islands, known as the Southern Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan, next week.
The news came after the Kremlin said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may visit Russia on Jan. 21 as the two countries step up a push to try to defuse the territorial dispute to allow them to sign a World War Two peace treaty, something the land disagreement has long prevented.
There was no immediate reaction from Japan. But Tokyo said in July it had asked Russia to reduce its military activity on the islands, a plea Moscow dismissed as unhelpful megaphone diplomacy at the time.
Soviet forces seized the four islands at the end of World War Two and Moscow and Tokyo both claim sovereignty over them. Diplomats on both sides have spoken of the possibility of reviving a Soviet-era draft agreement that envisaged returning two of the four islands as part of a peace deal.
President Vladimir Putin and Abe have held numerous face-to-face meetings to try to make progress.
But tensions have remained high. Tokyo says it is concerned by what it regards as an unhelpful Russian military build-up on the islands - which has included warplane, missile defence and other deployments. Moscow, meanwhile, says it is perturbed by Japan's roll-out of the Aegis Ashore U.S. missile system.
