Putin Lands on Disputed Kuril Island for First Time, Triggering Sharp Protest From Japan

Russian leader Vladimir Putin made his first visit to Iturup, one of the disputed southern Kuril Islands claimed by Japan, prompting Tokyo to lodge a strong protest.

Released footage showed Putin visiting the island, known in Japan as Etorofu, where he toured the Yasny fish-processing plant and was shown products including tuna and halibut, according to the Kremlin press service on August 13.

He also visited the Kuril Central District Hospital and a local school before meeting Sakhalin regional governor Valery Limarenko.

After leaving Iturup, Putin traveled to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, where he met residents.

The trip drew an immediate response from Japan, which regards Iturup and several neighboring islands as sovereign Japanese territory.

Japan’s foreign minister Toshimitsu Motegi said Tokyo had lodged a formal protest, according to Japan Wire.

“The Northern Territories, including Etorofu, are an inherent part of the territory of Japan both historically and under international law. Japan strongly protests this visit,” he said.

Japan claims Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai islets, collectively referred to in Japan as the Northern Territories. Russia currently controls all four.

The dispute has remained one of the principal obstacles preventing Moscow and Tokyo from signing a formal peace treaty more than eight decades after World War II.

The Soviet Union seized the islands at the end of the war. In 1956, Moscow and Tokyo signed a joint declaration under which the Soviet Union agreed that Shikotan and the Habomai islets could be transferred to Japan after the conclusion of a peace treaty.

The two countries never reached such an agreement, however, while Japan later continued to press its claim to all four disputed territories.

Russia maintains that the outcome of World War II settled its sovereignty over the islands and cannot be reconsidered.

Speaking shortly before his visit during Russian Pacific Fleet exercises, Putin claimed Moscow previously had constructive relations with former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other Japanese leaders over the territorial dispute but accused Tokyo of changing its position.

Relations deteriorated sharply after Russia launched its full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine in 2022 and Japan joined Western sanctions against Moscow.

Russia subsequently suspended negotiations with Japan over a peace treaty.

Japan, in turn, returned in 2022 to describing the disputed islands as territory “illegally occupied” by Russia, terminology Tokyo had not officially used since 2003.

Earlier, the Japanese government had lodged a formal protest after Russia announced plans to conduct live-fire exercises near the disputed Northern Territories from August 1 to September 1.

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