Putin Visits Islands Long Claimed by Japan in Bitter Reminder of Russia’s War for Ukraine

President Vladimir Putin has reaffirmed Japan’s historic claims to a cluster of islands that Soviet troops captured in the last days of World War II and has refused ever since to relinquish.Mr. Putin, on his first visit to the largest island in the southern Kurils, within eyesight of Japan’s large northern island, Hokkaido, visited a school named after Eduard Norpolov, regarded by the Russians as a hero in Russia’s war in Ukraine, where he fell in action. Accompanied by the governor of the Sakhalin region east of Siberia, Valery Limarenko, Mr. Putin made the islands a symbol of Russia’s refusal to compromise on its claims to Ukraine, at the opposite end of the Russian land mass.“The Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly emphasized that Russia’s sovereignty over these territories, which has the appropriate international legal basis, is beyond doubt,” said a report by the Russian news agency, Tass. Mr. Putin’s visit to the island known as Etorofu to the Japanese and Iturup to the Russians also raised the issue of the defense of what the Pentagon calls “the first island chain” beginning in the Kurils and extending south through Japan all the way to Australia and New Zealand.Mr. Putin’s visit drew an indignant response from Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, who repeated the Japanese claim that the “northern territories,” as they are known in Japan, belong to Japan “both historically and under international law.” Japan’s Kyodo news agency quoted her as calling Mr. Putin’s visit “incompatible with Japan’s consistent position,” and her foreign ministry lodged “a strong protest” with the Russian ambassador.If history is any guide, the ruckus over Mr. Putin’s visit is not going to go beyond a virulent war of words that the Japanese and Russians have been waging ever since Russian troops invaded the islands in the final week of World War II in August 1945.After ordering their Japanese residents to leave, Soviet authorities moved a few thousand Russians into the islands. About 20,000 Russians now live in the southern Kurils, farming and fishing while Russia refuses Japanese requests to visit and possibly share fishing rights. One issue is Russia’s refusal to permit Japanese to visit the graves of their ancestors on the islands.Mr. Putin’s visit, nearly four-and-a-half years into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, “appears aimed at showing observers at home and abroad that Moscow will not make territorial concessions including to Japan,“ said Kyodo. The dispute, it added, accounts for the failure of Russia and Japan to sign a peace treaty marking the end of World War II.Ms. Takaichi, known for her conservative views and avowed intention to build up Japanese military forces, said Mr. Putin’s visit had “further hardened anti-Russian sentiment in Japan and made it more difficult to restore relations over the medium to long term,” according to Kyodo. Ms. Takaichi said her government would “carefully consider” a more complete response to Mr. Putin’s visit. Meanwhile, she urged the Russians to “take the gravity of the situation seriously.”Japan also protested a visit by the former Russian president, Dimitry Medvedev, who visited one of the islands in 2020 at a time when Mr. Putin was serving as prime minister. The standoff has yet to inspire the threat of military action either by Japan or its American ally, most of whose 55,000 troops in Japan are at marine and air bases on the southernmost Japanese prefecture of Okinawa. American planes are not known to have flown missions over the islands.There is little doubt, however, the islands stir emotions. News of Mr. Putin’s visit “quickly became one of the top trends in the Japanese segment of social network X,” Tass reported. A Tass correspondent “calculated, in the first half hour, users of this social network posted more than 2,000 messages on this topic, making it a trending leader.”The Associated Press quoted Mr. Medvedev, deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, as saying, “This chatter won’t change a thing.” Mr. Medvedev, who visited the islands four times as both president and prime minister under Mr. Putin, warned. “Anyone who fails to understand this will face the monstrous consequences of their delusion.”

Putin Visits Islands Long Claimed by Japan in Bitter Reminder of Russia’s War for Ukraine

Putin Visits Islands Long Claimed by Japan in Bitter Reminder of Russia’s War for Ukraine

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