By Kudo Takehito

MOSCOW – On Nov. 22, the Russian military’s Eastern Military District, which has jurisdiction over the Far East area, announced it had conducted military exercises using the S-300V4 high-performance surface-to-air missile on the Kuril Islands (the Northern Territories and the Chishima Islands). The missile was deployed to the Northern Territories in December last year. It is believed that Russia conducted the exercises to flaunt its sophisticated anti-aircraft capabilities in the Northern Territories, which Russia unilaterally claims, both domestically and internationally, as its own territories.

The Russian military has not disclosed exactly where it conducted the exercises, but the exercises are believed to have been conducted on the Etorofu and Kunashiri islands, where the S-300V4 is said to be deployed. According to the announcement, the exercises included the detection of enemy aircraft, missile launches, and the destruction of targets made to resemble enemy aircraft, based on the scenario of an intrusion into Russia’s airspace by a “hypothetical enemy.” The Eastern Military District also test-launched the S-300V4 missile in April this year.

Meanwhile, the Eastern Military District announced on Nov. 23 that it had completed another live-fire training joined by some 1,000 personnel on the mainland of Sakhalin in the Far East and the Kuril Islands.