Putin angers Japan with trip to Kuril Islands

BarcelonaRussian President Vladimir Putin visited the Kuril Islands for the first time this Thursday, the disputed Pacific archipelago administered by Moscow but claimed by Tokyo for over eight decades. The visit, which had not been previously announced, has sparked the indignation of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who called it "absolutely unacceptable" and warned that it "hurts the feelings of the Japanese people." Consequently, the Japanese Foreign Minister has urgently summoned the Russian ambassador to Tokyo, Nikolai Nozdrеv, to lodge a formal protest.

For his part, Nozdrеv argued that "the president's trips within the country are completely normal and cannot be a subject of discussion with foreign states," recalling Russia's sovereignty over the islands. In this regard, former Russian President and current Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, said in a message on X that the islands "were, are, and will remain Russian land." "Whoever does not understand this will face the monstrous consequences of their deceit," he warned.

Specifically, Putin traveled to the island known in Russia as Iturup and in Japan as Etorofu, the largest in the South Kuril Islands archipelago (which Japan calls the Northern Territories). These four islands were occupied by Soviet troops in the final days of World War II, just after Japan's surrender, and led to the emigration of nearly 17,000 Japanese residents.

For decades, Tokyo has maintained its claim over the sovereignty of this territory: "They are an inherent part of Japanese territory, both historically and legally, according to international law," Takaichi assured. For the Japanese government, the situation "further exacerbates anti-Russian sentiment in the country" and demands the return of the archipelago as an indispensable condition for achieving a formal peace treaty with Russia.

Tense relations since the aggression in Ukraine

During his stay, covered by Russian media, the head of the Kremlin visited a school, a hospital, and a fish processing plant. "What beautiful weather, like in a resort!" Putin exclaimed to local residents in a video disseminated by the Russian government. It is the first time Putin has visited these islands, but not the first time a Russian president has set foot on them while in office: previously, Dmitry Medvedev had traveled there in 2010 while he was president.

Putin's trip occurs at a time of high geopolitical tension, just one day after North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan. Ties between Moscow and Tokyo, already fragile, deteriorated severely after Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, at which point Japan aligned with Western powers to impose economic sanctions on Russia. In parallel, the Kremlin and China recently signed a joint declaration in which they commit to opposing attempts to "revise the results of World War II" and warn against the remilitarization of the Asia-Pacific region, in a clear message directed at the rapprochement between Tokyo and Washington.