For a long time, the Russian authorities, in fact, did not pay serious attention to the state of affairs in the Kuril Islands. And this autumn the situation has changed dramatically. The Russian Ministry of Defense has decided to deploy modern weapons on the Kuril Islands. In particular, a large-scale transfer of armored vehicles (T-80 tanks) and anti-aircraft missile systems (Buk-M1) is under way to Kunashir and Iturup. And such a strengthening of the Russian grouping in this Far Eastern region, according to representatives of the defense department, is far from the limit. In particular, in the near future MRPK "Pantsir-S1", SAM "Buk-M2", as well as SAM "Tor-M2" and a whole subdivision of helicopters of the "Night Hunter" class (Mi-28N) will also be delivered to the Kuriles. For reliable protection of the islands at sea, the Bastion kit equipped with cruise missiles (Yakhont) will be used. The Yakhont is an excellent anti-ship missile with a solid-propellant booster capable of propelling the missile up to Mach 2 (double the speed of sound). The homing system of this missile is capable of capturing a target at a distance of up to 75 km.
According to the military, the strengthening of the military presence of Russian troops in the Kuril Islands will also be expressed in the fact that several hundred additional servicemen will be sent to the islands. And to accommodate such a number of military personnel with their families, modern housing and developed infrastructure will be built. The General Staff has already developed the structure of the renewed military garrison in the Kuril Islands.
It should be noted that serious cold snaps in Russian-Japanese relations in the so-called "Kuril issue" occurred after the Russian President visited the Kuriles last year. Immediately after that, a demonstration took place in the north of the Japanese island of Hokkaido under the slogan of returning the Kuril Islands to the Land of the Rising Sun. Even high-ranking Japanese officials expressed their indignation at the arrival of Dmitry Medvedev in the Kuril Islands, calling the South Kuriles their ancestral lands, and Russia's actions "impermissible rudeness." Immediately after that, President Medvedev announced that he would continue to visit any Russian regions in the future and that he, in fact, does not care what they think about this abroad, including in Japan. Perhaps the conflict on the part of the Japanese authorities would have continued to escalate, but the monstrous earthquake that caused the tsunami and the problems at Fukushima-1, of course, forced the Japanese government to temporarily forget about the "problem of the northern territories."
However, the Russian side, realizing that the Japanese will sooner or later return to their old song about the return of the Kuriles under their "wing", decided to forestall these attempts and went to strengthen the military presence on the islands. It is gratifying to realize that Moscow has finally begun to show interest in its most remote territory, where thousands of Russians live, literally cut off from the rest of Russia.
It can be assumed that if new military units appear in the Kuril Islands, this will contribute not only to an increase in the number of jobs in this region, but also to stability in its small territory.
