Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the Kuril Islands in the Russian Far East for the first time today - a visit that sparked a sharp protest from Japan, as Tokyo also claims this archipelago, Agence France-Presse reported, BTA reported.
Yesterday, the Russian head of state boarded the missile cruiser "Varyag" in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, on Sakhalin Island, where he listened to a report on an ongoing exercise, TASS reported.
After Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, where he also visited a hospital, the Russian president was today on Iturup Island in the Kuril archipelago, a video released by Moscow shows.
Russian media reports that there he visited a fish products factory, where he was offered to try caviar. He also visited a local school.
“What a wonderful time you have here, like at a seaside resort,” Putin told a group of Iturup locals.
”And we thought you organized it!”, a 30-year-old woman joked.
Tokyo was quick to respond through Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi.
”The Northern Territories, including Etorofu Island, are an integral part of Japan's territory, both from a historical point of view and under international law, and the Japanese government strongly protests this visit,” Motegi said in a statement, using the Japanese name for the islands.
Russian-Japanese relations have long been marked by tension over the Kuril Islands, which Tokyo considers occupied by the Soviet Union in 1945, notes AFP.
Moscow and Tokyo have never signed a formal peace treaty since World War II, with the main obstacle being the unresolved territorial dispute over the islands, Reuters points out.
The Soviet Union captured this strategically important volcanic archipelago, located north of the Japanese island of Hokkaido, in the closing days of World War II and has maintained a military presence there ever since.
In 2010, then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev became the first Russian head of state to visit the territory, which angered Tokyo. He returned there in 2019 as Prime Minister.
The Soviet Union declared war on Japan only on August 8, 1945, after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and six days before the end of World War II.
The names of some of the islands are similar in Russia and Japan: Kunashir - Kunashiri, Iturup - Etorofu, and others completely coincide: Habomai, Shikotan.
The population of the islands - about 20,000 Russian citizens - lives in a harsh climate, but the islands have mineral deposits, in particular gold and silver, as well as rich fishing grounds, AFP notes.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sharply criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to the Kuril Islands today, Agence France-Presse reported, writes BTA.
"This visit... contradicts Japan's consistent position on the Northern Territories (as the country calls the Pacific archipelago - AFP note). It offends the feelings of the Japanese people and is completely unacceptable," Takaichi said.