AGING AMMO STORED ON DISPUTED ISLANDS.

Russia’s Far Eastern Military district has been storing its obsolete ammunition on islands in the southern Kuril chain claimed by Japan. The district’s commander said on December 4 that his men had begun to destroy old mines and shells on Iturup Island. In all, more than 500,000 pieces of over-age munitions are to be liquidated, some of which were also stored on the adjacent Kunashir and Shikotan islands. The commander said that measures had been taken not to "damage the unique Kuril environment." (Interfax-Eurasia, December 4)

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