Putin visits the Kuril Islands for the first time, Japan protests

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the Kuril island of Iturup on August 13 during a working trip to the Sakhalin region, the Kremlin press service reported.

With his visit to the Kurils, Putin continued his working trip through Siberia and the Far East.

Japan expressed a "resolute protest" to Russia over Putin's visit to the Kuril island. This was stated in a statement by the head of the Japanese Foreign Ministry, published by the foreign policy agency.

The ministry also stated that all the "northern territories," as Tokyo calls the southern part of the Kuril Islands, including Iturup, are "primordial [Japanese] territory from a historical and legal point of view."

Putin visited the Kuril Islands in person for the first time. Previously, leaders of the Russian state and government had visited the Kurils five times. Four trips were made by Dmitry Medvedev: in 2010 as president, and in 2012, 2015 and 2019 as prime minister. In 2021, Iturup was visited by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

Since the middle of the last century, Moscow and Tokyo have held talks aimed at working out a peace agreement following the results of World War II. The main obstacle on the path toward this remains disagreements over the rights to the southern part of the Kurils. After the end of the war, the entire archipelago was incorporated into the Soviet Union, but Japan disputes the ownership of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and a group of small uninhabited islands.