Source: France 24 [French state media]
“Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the far-eastern Kuril islands for the first time on Thursday, prompting a ‘strong’ protest by Japan, which also claims the territory. Russian-Japanese relations have long been dogged by tensions over the contested islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories and seized by the Soviet Union in 1945. The Kremlin posted a video of Putin in the Kuril Islands, with Russian media saying he visited a fish-processing plant where he was given caviar. Putin travelled to the Kurils after visiting the nearby Russian island of Sakhalin, where Russia’s navy was conducting drills. … The four 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.” (08/13/26)
https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20260813-putin-visits-kuril-islands-claimed-by-japan