The Russian embassy in Tokyo is preparing a note to the Japanese foreign ministry demanding to launch criminal investigation into the recent desecration of the Russian flag, a diplomat said.
Japanese right-wing campaigners dragged the Russian flag along the ground outside the Russian Embassy in Tokyo on February 7, demanding the return of a group of disputed Pacific islands. The embassy sent a protest note to the Japanese Foreign Ministry just after the incident.
Later that day, the Russian embassy in Tokyo had also received an envelope containing a bullet and a letter which said "The Northern Territories are Japanese land."
"We are preparing a note demanding criminal action against individuals who desecrated the Russian Flag, according to article 92 of the Japanese criminal code," the source said.
The Russian diplomat added that situation in Tokyo "remains tense" as "Japanese radicals continue to send various insulting mails to Russian institutions."
Both Japan and Russia have laid claims to the South Kuril Islands, called the Northern Territories by the Japanese, since they were annexed by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II. The dispute has prevented the two countries from signing a peace treaty to formally end hostilities.
The sparsely populated islands in dispute are in the Kuril chain between Japan's northern island of Hokkaido and Russia's far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, with the closest just 15 km (9 miles) from Hokkaido.
Tensions escalated since Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited one of the disputed islands on November 2010 last year. Japanese Premier Naoto Kan called the visit an "inexcusable rudeness."
The Northern Territories Day is marked annually in Japan on February 7. Every year, right-wing activists cruise the streets in vans equipped with loudspeakers to play nationalist music and chants.
TOKYO, February 22 (RIA Novosti)
