Tokyo/Moscow; August 2026: It was on Thursday (13th August 2026) Russian President Vladimir Putin have visited the far-eastern Kuril islands for the first time, although the Soviet Union have seized the Islands in 1945. This has prompted Japan to lodge a strong protest which also claims the territory.
Russian-Japanese relations have long been strained, stemming from tensions over the contested islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories and seized by the Soviet Union in 1945. Last Thursday, President Putin had travelled to the Kurils after visiting the nearby Russian island of Sakhalin, where Russia's navy was conducting drills. In Sakhalin, Putin held a meeting "on ensuring the security of Russia's eastern borders", as informed by official sources.
Japan, whose ties with Russia have worsened further since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 -- just as Moscow's relations with China and North Korea have warmed -- objected strongly. "The Northern Territories are an inherent part of Japan's territory both historically and under international law, and the government of Japan strongly protests this visit", Japan’s Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said in a statement.
The Soviet Union took the strategically located volcanic archipelago north of Hokkaido in the final days of World War II, and has maintained a military presence there ever since.
In 2010 then president Dmitry Medvedev became the first Russian leader to visit the disputed territory. Medvedev also went there several times subsequently as prime minister.
The 04 contested isles are part of the volcanic Kuril archipelago, which runs in a broad arc from Russia's Kamchatka peninsula down to Japan's main northern island Hokkaido. It is of immense importance that the Soviet Union had only declared war on Japan on August 8, 1945, after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and six days before the end of the conflict.
The islands' names are similar in both countries:
In Russian Language -- Kunashir, Habomai, Shikotan and Iturup;
In Japanese Language -- Kunashiri, Habomai, Shikotan and Etorofu.
Their population of about 20,000 Russian citizens lives in a harsh climate, but the islands have mineral deposits including gold and silver, and rich fishing grounds.
After the islands were occupied in 1945, Moscow deported their Japanese population of about 17,000 people. Thereafter the islands acquired strategic importance, providing air and sea bases during the Cold War as the Soviet Union confronted the United States and its closest ally in the Pacific, Japan.
The four Southern Kurile islands in question became Japanese territory by a negotiated Treaty with Russia in 1855. However, a recent insight reveals that these Islands were never taken by war and certainly not after 1917. Which is he US, UK and EU consider them Japanese territory under Russian occupation?
On several occasions it appeared that off-and-on talks between Japan and Russia were making progress and in 1956, when diplomatic relations were established, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev suggested 02 of the disputed islands might be returned under a peace treaty. Although the talks had resumed after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, no progress has been made.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to the Kuril Island has its own military importance, as the Ukraine have shot missiles at a far east oil terminal last week. A long way beyond the reach of any drone fired from Ukrainian territory. Believed to have been fired from shipping not a million miles away from Russia's islands north of Hokkaido. Moreover, the Russians President fear that if they fail to intervene at the correct moment, the Japanese would allow a US base on these islands.
Team Maverick.
