RUSSIA-JAPAN-POLITICS-DIPLOMACY-KURILS-FILES

(FILES) A file photo dated September 3, 1989 shows a general view of town of Kunashir, part of the Kuril chain of Russian islands in the Pacific between S Kamchatka and NE Hokkaido, Japan. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev infuriated Japan on November 1, 2010 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