REGIONAL LEADER URGES RETURN OF KURIL ISLANDS TO JAPAN.

Nikolai Fedorov, the President of Chuvashiya, told visiting Japanese parliamentarians in Moscow yesterday that Russia should return the four disputed Kuril Islands to Japan. Fedorov, who is also deputy chairman of the Federation Council’s International Affairs Committee, attributed Moscow’s intransigence to misguided patriotism and Russia’s low level of legal culture. A Foreign Ministry spokesman rushed to clarify that Fedorov’s opinions did not reflect the views of the Russian government. (Interfax, November 20)

MiG-29’s Arrive in Peru.