FM considers Japan's reaction on Medvedev Kuril trip unacceptable. (Updates with more details)

1/11 Tass 121

MOSCOW, November 1 (Itar-Tass) - Japan's reaction on a visit to Kuril
Islands by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is unacceptable, Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"Japan's reaction is unacceptable. It is our land. The Russian
president visited Russian lands," the minister said on Monday.
Lavrov said the Japanese ambassador would be summoned at the Foreign
Ministry over this issue.
"We are not going to take steps, which will hamper Russian-Japanese
cooperation. But Japan should draw conclusions," the minister added.
Last week, Lavrov said there is no "link" between President Dmitry
Medvedev's possible visit to Kuril Islands and Russian-Japanese relations.
Lavrov said, "President Medvedev decides himself what regions of the
Russian Federation he will visit."
Replying to a Japanese journalist what happens in Russian-Japanese
relations if the Russian head of state visit Kuril Islands, Lavrov
stressed: "I don't see any link."
"How I can worry that the president regularly visits any Russian
regions, which he wants to visit," the Russian minister added.
The Kuril Islands dispute, also known as the Northern Territories
dispute, is a dispute between Russian and Japan over sovereingty over the
South Kuril Islands.
The disputed islands, which were occupied by Soviet forces during the
Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation at the end of World War II, are
under Russian administration as South Kuril District of the Sakhalin
region, but are claimed by Japan, which refers to them as the Northern
Territories, being part of the Nemuro Subprefecture of Hokkaido Prefecture.
The San Francisco Peace Treaty between the Allied Powers and Japan
from 1951 states that Japan must give up all claims to the Kuril
islands,but it also does not recognize the Soviet Union's sovereignty over
the Kuril Islands.
Russia maintains that the Soviet Union's sovereignty over the islands
was recognized following agreements at the end of the Second World War.
However, Japan has disputed this claim.
-0-yur