RUSSIA-JAPAN-POLITICS-DIPLOMACY

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (R) and Sakhalin regional governor Alexander Khoroshavin (L) stand in front of an Orthodox Church cathedral during Medvedev’s visit to Kunashir one of the Kuril islands on November 1, 2010. Medvedev stoked Japan’s ire on Monday with a visit to the Kuril islands, a remote territory at the heart of a decades-long dispute with Tokyo. Japan summoned Russia’s ambassador to Tokyo after Medvedev flew into the island of Kunashir, on the first visit by a Russian leader to the isles which have prevented a post-World War II peace treaty between the two neighbours. AFP PHOTO/ RIA-NOVOSTI/ KREMLIN POOL/ MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV