Putin visits disputed Kuril Islands for first time, drawing protest from Japan

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the Kuril Islands — known in Japan as the Northern Territories — on Thursday, the first visit to the disputed territory by a Russian president since Dmitry Medvedev travelled there in November 2010. Japan responded with an immediate formal protest, with Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi declaring that the islands are 'an inherent part of Japan's territory both historically and under international law.'

All three sources confirm Putin visited a fish-processing plant on the island known in Russian as Iturup and in Japanese as Etorofu, where, according to Russian media, he was given caviar. According to The Independent, the plant is called the Yasny fish-processing plant, and footage broadcast by the Vesti television channel showed Putin examining a large tuna and a halibut while officials discussed fishing and fish migration.

The visit to the Kurils followed Putin's presence the previous day in the nearby Sakhalin Region, where, according to TASS as cited by The Independent, he observed a military drill by Russia's Pacific Fleet aboard a missile cruiser named 'Varyag'. France 24 and Deutsche Welle both report that Russia's navy was conducting drills in Sakhalin, and France 24 adds that Putin held a meeting there 'on ensuring the security of Russia's eastern borders,' citing RIA Novosti.

The four islands at the centre of the dispute — Kunashir, Habomai, Shikotan, and Iturup in Russian; Kunashiri, Habomai, Shikotan, and Etorofu in Japanese — form part of the volcanic Kuril archipelago, which runs in an arc from Russia's Kamchatka peninsula down to Japan's northernmost main island, Hokkaido.

The Soviet Union seized the islands in the closing days of World War II. France 24 and The Independent both note that Moscow declared war on Japan on 8 August 1945, two days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and six days before the war ended. Following the occupation, the approximately 17,000 Japanese residents were deported. The islands are currently inhabited by around 20,000 Russian citizens.

The unresolved territorial dispute is one of the main reasons the two countries have never signed a formal peace treaty ending World War II. Russia-Japan relations have deteriorated further since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, according to France 24 and Deutsche Welle.

The islands hold strategic and economic significance: all three sources note mineral deposits including gold and silver and rich fishing grounds, and France 24 and The Independent report that air and naval bases built during the Cold War remain in use.

Dmitry Medvedev became the first Russian leader to visit the disputed territory in 2010. France 24 states he subsequently visited several times as prime minister; Deutsche Welle specifies he also went in 2015 as prime minister. The Independent describes Putin's visit as the first by a Russian president to the islands since Medvedev's trip to Kunashiri in November 2010, and the first by Putin himself in more than a quarter of a century in power.

According to The Independent, the visit came a day after North Korea — described as a Russian ally — launched a ballistic missile towards waters off the east coast of the Korean peninsula, shortly before planned joint military exercises by South Korea and the United States that Pyongyang has long condemned.

Diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute have been intermittent. France 24 notes that in 1956, when diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Japan were established, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev suggested two of the four disputed islands might be returned under a peace treaty, but no peace treaty was concluded. Talks resumed after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 but, according to both France 24 and Deutsche Welle, have produced no results.

Where sources differ

• France 24 states Medvedev visited the islands 'several times subsequently as prime minister' without specifying dates, while Deutsche Welle specifies he returned in 2015 as prime minister — the sources are not in direct conflict but provide different levels of specificity.
• France 24 describes Putin's Kuril visit as his 'first time' on the islands without qualification, while The Independent specifies it is the first such visit 'in more than a quarter of a century in power,' implying Putin may not previously have visited as president but leaving open whether he visited before taking office — the sources are not directly contradictory but frame the significance differently.
• Deutsche Welle characterises Russia's invasion of Ukraine as 'illegal'; France 24 and The Independent do not use that characterisation.

• No source includes a formal Kremlin or Russian government response to Japan's protest.
• The sources do not clarify whether Putin had previously visited the islands before becoming president, leaving the precise scope of 'first time' ambiguous.
• The sources do not report any reaction from China or North Korea to Putin's visit.
• The sources do not detail the current status of any bilateral Russia-Japan negotiations or diplomatic channels.
• It is not established from any source whether any new policy announcements or infrastructure commitments were made during the visit.
• The sources do not describe the full agenda or duration of Putin's stay on the island.
• No independent verification of the claims about military activity in Sakhalin is provided beyond Russian state media.

1. France 24 — original — by FRANCE 24
2. Deutsche Welle — by Timothy Jones
3. The Independent — by Stuti Mishra

Read the original at France 24

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