Russia snaps back at Japan over Kurils.

MOSCOW, November 1 (Itar-Tass) -- The Russian Foreign Ministry said
Japan's reaction to President Dmitry Medvedev's trip to the Kuril islands
was "unacceptable".
"The Japanese government reacted in an unacceptable form to Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to the island of Kunashir," the ministry
said on Monday, November 1.
"Referring to the fact that Japan has claims on the southern part of
the Kuril Islands, including the island of Kunashir, Tokyo expressed
regret in connection with the abovementioned visit and said that this fact
can have negative consequences for Japanese-Russian relations," the
ministry said after a meeting between Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei
Borodavkin and Japanese Ambassador to Russia Masaharu Kono.
"This Japanese demarche was rejected categorically. It was pointed out
to the Japanese side that its attempts to influence the president's choice
of itineraries for his trips in the Russian Federation are unacceptable
and incompatible with the good-neighbourly nature of Russian-Japanese
relations that have developed lately," the ministry said.
-0-zak/