The New York Times reports that, according to a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Russia will not collaborate on US missile defense, except on the condition that plans to deploy parts of the shield in Poland and the Czech Republic are abandoned.  RFE/RL says that Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko has suggested that a compromise may still be reached.  The Washington Post reports that Russia is willing to increase cooperation with the US in the battle against international terrorism.  Kremlin envoy Anatoly Safonov has said that drug trafficking and the situation in Afghanistan are of special concern.  Russia has argued that a recent bill by Japan on the much-disputed Southern Kuril islands seems ‘to escalate its illegal territorial claims to Russia‘.  The Foreign Ministry claims that a return of the islands to the Japanese is inconceivable.