Russia began military exercises in a Pacific island chain parts of which are also claimed by Japan, a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said on Tuesday, a potential blow to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to keep the door open to dialog with Moscow despite strains over the Ukraine crisis.
Exercises began involving military units in the region, which are deploying to the Kurile Islands,” Colonel Alexander Gordeyev, a spokesman for Russia’s Eastern Military District, told the Russian news agency Interfax.
Gordeyev said more than 1,000 troops, five Mi-8AMTSh attack helicopters and 100 other pieces of military hardware would be involved in …read more
Source: Voice of America
