Russia sent four missile-armed warships near Japan, with the vessels passing about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Hokkaido a day after Russian leader Vladimir Putin visited Iturup, one of the disputed Kuril Islands claimed by Japan.
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According to Japan’s Joint Staff on August 16, four Russian Project 12411M Molniya-1 missile corvettes were detected off Cape Soya on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido on August 14.
A P-3C maritime patrol aircraft from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s 2nd Air Wing monitored the Russian vessels and collected information on their movements. Japanese authorities said the ships did not enter Japan’s territorial waters.
The vessels, carrying hull numbers 916, 946, 971, and 978, belong to Russia’s Pacific Fleet. NATO designates the Project 12411M class as Tarantul III.
The same four warships had been detected on August 9 approximately 70 kilometers (43 miles) northwest of Japan’s Rebun Island before sailing east through the Soya Strait. They were subsequently observed heading back west on August 14.
Their return passage came a day after Putin traveled to Iturup on August 13, prompting a formal protest from Tokyo. Japan considers Iturup part of its Northern Territories, which were seized by the Soviet Union in 1945 and remain under Russian control. The decades-long territorial dispute has prevented Japan and Russia from formally concluding a World War II peace treaty.
Russia considers the Kuril Islands strategically important and maintains military infrastructure across the archipelago. Iturup hosts the Burevestnik military airfield. The Project 12411M Molniya-1 is a Soviet-designed missile corvette intended to engage surface targets in coastal and near-sea waters. The class entered service in the early 1980s.
Each vessel is armed with four 3M80 Moskit supersonic anti-ship missiles, a 76 mm AK-176M naval gun, two six-barrel 30 mm AK-630M close-in weapon systems, and Igla-1 surface-to-air missiles.
The vessels can reach speeds of up to 41 knots and have a range of approximately 1,600 nautical miles (2,963 kilometers) at a cruising speed of 14 knots. Each carries a crew of around 40.
The four vessels identified by Japan were R-298, commissioned in 1990; R-19, commissioned in 1992; R-24, commissioned in 1994; and R-29, commissioned in 2003.
The naval movement came amid increasingly sharp rhetoric from Moscow over the territorial dispute. Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council, warned Japan of “monstrous consequences” after Tokyo reiterated its claim to the islands and protested Putin’s visit to Iturup.
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