Kuril islands dispute: Back to gridlock?

If Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s territorial dispute strategy was to thwart China in the south as he spoke to Russia in the north, it will need some re-thinking. As The Diplomat reported on Wednesday, Russia began conducting a military drill on the disputed Kuril Islands.

The drill is hugely provocative and has deeply upset the Japanese government, which says that it will “strongly protest” Russia’s audacity in the Kurils. The drill is not a small operation either—it involved 1,000 troops, a handful of attack helicopters, and other military hardware. This incident formally puts a stop to whatever progress Tokyo and Moscow had attained toward a peaceful resolution of the long-standing dispute between the two countries.