Putin Visits Disputed Kuril Islands, Sparks Fierce Japan Protest

Russian President Vladimir Putin made a historic and strategic personal visit to the disputed Kuril Islands on Thursday, stepping foot on Iturup Island—known in Japan as Etorofu—for the first time in his presidency. The high-profile trip, coming immediately after Putin inspected Russian Pacific Fleet naval drills off neighboring Sakhalin Island aboard the missile cruiser Varyag, has ignited a fierce diplomatic confrontation between Moscow and Tokyo. During his time on the island, administered as part of Russia’s Sakhalin Oblast where the Russian ruble serves as sole currency and Russian is spoken exclusively following the post-World War II deportation of its former Japanese inhabitants, the Russian leader conducted inspections of the Yasny fish processing complex, walked through the Kurilsk Central District Hospital, visited the Hero of Russia Eduard Norpolov Secondary General School, and held an administrative working session with Sakhalin Governor Valery Limarenko. While former president Dmitry Medvedev visited in 2010 and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in 2021, Putin’s personal presence underscores Moscow’s de facto control over the island chain that the Soviet Union seized in the final days of World War II in 1945, a territorial rift over the four southernmost islands—Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan, and Habomai—that has kept Russia and Japan from ever signing a formal peace treaty.

The visit drew swift and uncompromising backlash from Tokyo, where Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi summoned Russian Ambassador Nikolay Nozdrev to lodge an official protest, reiterating that the Northern Territories remain an inherent part of Japan’s territory under international law. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi convened urgent strategy sessions with National Security Secretariat Secretary-General Keiichi Ichikawa and Vice Foreign Minister Takehiro Funakoshi, warning that the move would severely damage prospects for restoring bilateral relations. However, Moscow responded with immediate and sharp defiance to Tokyo’s diplomatic pushback.

Beyond political rhetoric, the island chain serves as a vital military fortress and gateway protecting the Sea of Okhotsk for Russia’s Pacific Fleet and nuclear submarines. The territory is fortified by the permanently stationed 18th Machine Gun Artillery Division, Bastion-P and Bal coastal anti-ship missile batteries, and the Yasny airfield, which has hosted Su-35 fighter jets since 2018. Japan’s Ministry of Defense reports that the S-300V4 air defense batteries once deployed on the islands were withdrawn after 2022, likely redeployed to the Ukraine front.

With bilateral ties already severely strained after Japan aligned with Western sanctions against Moscow over the war in Ukraine, President Putin’s visit underlines a permanent geopolitical reality in the North Pacific, signaling little appetite for renewed peace-treaty talks and reinforcing Russia’s military posture in the region.