Putin makes first Kuril islands visit, Japan protests

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the far-eastern Kuril islands for the first time on Thursday, drawing a strong protest from Japan, which also claims the disputed territory.

Japan calls the contested islands the Northern Territories. Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said in a statement that they are “an inherent part of Japan's territory both historically and under international law,” and that Japan “strongly protests this visit.”

The Kremlin posted video of Putin in the Kuril Islands. Russian media said he visited a fish-processing plant where he was given caviar. He travelled there after visiting the nearby Russian island of Sakhalin, where Russia's navy was conducting drills. RIA Novosti said Putin held a meeting in Sakhalin on “ensuring the security of Russia's eastern borders.”

Russian-Japanese relations have long been affected by the dispute over the islands, which were seized by the Soviet Union in 1945. Ties have worsened further since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The four contested isles are part of the volcanic Kuril archipelago north of Japan's Hokkaido. They are known as Kunashir, Habomai, Shikotan and Iturup in Russian, and as Kunashiri, Habomai, Shikotan and Etorofu in Japanese. About 20,000 Russian citizens live there.

The Soviet Union deported the islands' Japanese population of about 17,000 people after occupying them in 1945. Moscow and Tokyo have held off-and-on talks over the islands, but no progress has been made since talks resumed after the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991.