On August 13, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a high‑profile trip to Iturup, the southernmost of the disputed Kuril Islands, marking the first time a Russian head of state has set foot there. The visit triggered an immediate and forceful diplomatic protest from Tokyo, heightening already tense Russo‑Japanese relations amid the Ukraine conflict.
Putin toured a fish‑processing plant, a local hospital and a school, met residents and Sakhalin governor Valery Limarenko, and inspected a Pacific Fleet drill on nearby Sakhalin. Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called the trip offensive and unacceptable, while Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi issued a formal protest. Russia’s foreign ministry, via spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, dismissed Japan’s remarks as politically inappropriate and legally unfounded.
The episode led Tokyo to summon the Russian ambassador and reiterate its claim over the four islands it calls the Northern Territories, underscoring the diplomatic fallout from Russia’s continued military buildup in the archipelago. The protest adds another layer of strain to bilateral ties that have been frayed by sanctions and Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, with no progress on a World War II peace treaty.
Sources differ on whether Putin’s trip was the first Russian leader visit to the islands: one account notes that former President Dmitry Medvedev visited Iturup in 2010 and 2015, while another cites Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin’s 2021 stop, suggesting Putin’s visit is the first by a sitting president rather than the first by any Russian official.