Japan Protests Putin’s First Visit To Disputed Kuril Islands

Japan has lodged a strong diplomatic protest after Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the disputed Kuril Islands on Thursday, marking the first time in his career as president that he has set foot on the volcanic archipelago claimed by both countries.

Putin travelled to Iturup, the largest of the four disputed southern Kuril Islands, visiting a fish processing plant and sampling caviar in footage broadcast by Russian state media.

The visit came after he attended naval drills on the nearby Russian island of Sakhalin.

Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi issued an immediate and sharp protest. “The Northern Territories are an inherent part of Japan’s territory both historically and under international law, and the government of Japan strongly protests this visit,” Motegi said in a statement.

Japan said Putin’s visit directly contradicted Tokyo’s position on sovereignty over the islands and renewed attention to the unresolved territorial dispute which remains the primary obstacle to a formal peace treaty between Japan and Russia, more than 80 years after the end of World War II.

The Soviet Union seized the chain of volcanic islands, which stretch from Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula down to Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido, in the final days of World War II in 1945.

Russia has administered them ever since while Japan has never formally renounced its claim, referring to them as the Northern Territories.

The dispute has prevented the two countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending their World War II hostilities.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited the islands in 2010, becoming the first Russian president to do so. Putin had not visited the disputed islands until Thursday.