Russia’s Pacific Fleet announced a large-scale missile exercise targeting simulated adversaries in the coastal waters of the Northern Territories. The exercise is seen as aimed at strengthening Russia’s effective control of the Northern Territories following Japan’s opposition to President Vladimir Putin’s visit.
Russia’s Pacific Fleet announced on the 20th that it had conducted a missile-launch exercise against simulated adversaries in the coastal waters of the Northern Territories. The fleet’s flagship, the guided-missile cruiser Varyag, fired 2 Vulcan anti-ship missiles, while the Omsk nuclear-powered submarine launched a salvo of Granit cruise missiles.
On some of the Kuril Islands, Oniks anti-ship missiles were also launched from Bastion coastal defense missile systems. Bastion systems have already been deployed on Iturup and Matua, and the exercise was said to have destroyed all of a group of targets located more than 300 kilometers away.
According to Interfax, a large-scale exercise involving more than 13,000 personnel began early this month in the Sea of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk and the northwestern Pacific. Approximately 60 surface ships and submarines and approximately 30 aircraft and helicopters took part. After inspecting Sakhalin, President Vladimir Putin monitored the final phase of the exercise and ordered that combat readiness be strengthened. The following day, he visited Iturup.
Japan’s Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu (茂木敏充) was reported to have said in the Middle East that “the strengthening of military capabilities on the four Northern Territories is unacceptable.” Russia’s military exercise has prompted concern in Japan as a sign of Moscow’s intention to strengthen its effective control of the Northern Territories.