Overview
- Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the southern Kuril island of Iturup on Thursday, stepping ashore, touring a fish plant, a hospital and a school, and meeting local officials and residents.
- Japan lodged a formal protest, summoned Russian ambassador Nikolay Nozdrev, and Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called the visit "absolutely unacceptable," saying the islands are inherently Japanese territory.
- Russian state media and Kremlin officials framed the trip as a personal assertion of control and senior figures including Dmitry Medvedev publicly reiterated that the islands belong to Russia.
- The visit followed large Pacific Fleet drills in Russia’s Far East and came a day after North Korea fired a ballistic missile into nearby waters, a sequence that Japanese officials say raises regional security tensions.
- The four disputed southern Kurils have blocked a post‑World War II peace treaty for decades, home now to about 20,000 Russian residents while Japan cites roughly 17,000 displaced former residents, and the trip is likely to make diplomatic settlement harder to reach.