Moscow (TIP) : Russia has deployed its Bastion coastal missile defence system to a remote part of the Kuril island chain in the Pacific near Japan, the Ministry of Defence’s Zvezda TV channel said on December 2. Japan lays claim to the Russian-held southern Kuril islands that Tokyo calls the Northern Territories, a territorial row that dates back to the end of World War Two when Soviet troops seized them from Japan. The dispute has prevented them signing a formal peace treaty. Reuters