RUSSO-JAPANESE RELATIONS: PROBLEMS AND PROGRESS.

Russian border troops yesterday continued their skirmishing with Japanese fishermen in the waters around the disputed Kuril Islands. In one incident, Russian patrol ships chased five Japanese boats said by the Russian side to have been fishing in Russian waters. In another incident, a Russian coast guard ship captured a Japanese fishing vessel and its six crewmen and took them to the Russian port of Nevelsk. (Itar-Tass, Kyodo, August 26) Russian patrol boats have fired on Japanese fishing vessels in the past, and on several occasions Japanese fishermen have been wounded as a result.

Despite the latest clash over fishing rights, Japan’s Foreign Ministry indicated yesterday that Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto will travel to Moscow for an informal meeting with Russian president Boris Yeltsin in early November. Although the Japanese ministry provided no specific date or venue, unnamed sources said to be associated with Yeltsin’s office claimed that the meeting will take place on November 1-2 in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. (Russian agencies, August 26) Yeltsin and Hashimoto first broached the topic of an informal meeting at June’s G-7 summit in Denver.

Two Russian Journalists Still Jailed in Belarus.