You're reading: Russia’s Medvedev lands on disputed Far East island (updated)

MOSCOW, July 3 - Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev arrived on Tuesday at a remote island in the far eastern Kuril archipelago, which is claimed by both Russia and Japan, Russian new agencies reported, in a trip likely to strain relations between the two countries.

Medvedev caused uproar in Japan in 2010 when he became the first Russian leader to visit the disputed island chain known as the Southern Kuriles in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan.

After that visit, he promised to send more modern arms to an artillery division deployed on the windswept archipelago.

The islands lie off Russia’s eastern coast, some 7,000 km (4,350 miles) away from Moscow. The island of Kunashir, the southernmost in the chain, where Medvedev landed, is only about 15 km from Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido.

Russia is raising its profile on its vast but sparsely populated eastern seaboard in advance of an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vladivostok in September.