Russia's foreign ministry said on Tuesday that it had protested to Japan's ambassador, Akira Muto, over remarks the Japanese prime minister made about Vladimir Putin's visit to Iturup. The ministry said Muto came to Smolenskaya Square and was told that Russian sovereignty and jurisdiction over the southern Kuril Islands are unshakeable, and that attempts by Tokyo to put them in doubt are unacceptable and unlawful. It added that Moscow reserves the right to countermeasures over Japan's sanctions and its support for Kyiv.
The visit that started this was on Thursday of last week. Putin went to Iturup, one of the four islands in dispute — the first time a serving Russian president has visited the chain. He met the governor of the Sakhalin region and went to a fish-processing plant, a hospital and a school.
Tokyo's response took the same form. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called the visit absolutely unacceptable and said it offends the sentiments of the Japanese people, and that it goes against Japan's consistent position. The foreign minister, Toshimitsu Motegi, said the islands are an inherent part of Japan's territory both historically and under international law, and then summoned Russia's ambassador to protest.
So each side has now called in the other's ambassador over the same islands inside a week. The underlying positions have not moved. Russia holds that the southern Kurils became Soviet territory as an outcome of the second world war. Japan claims the four southernmost islands and calls them the Northern Territories. There is still no peace treaty between the two countries, and relations have worsened since 2022, when Japan joined the other G7 states in sanctioning Russia.
Why it is on the board
It was third on the most-read list at RIA Novosti when we collected. Note that the account of the meeting is the Russian ministry's own — a Russian state agency reporting what a Russian ministry says it told a foreign envoy. What the Japanese side said in the room is not in it.
This board now carries a formal protest against Japan's prime minister from two different governments. The other is in the China column: Beijing's foreign ministry, asked about her on Monday, called the shrine she had sent an offering to the war criminals' shrine. And neither country's reading list today carries the other's protest — the Russian lists have one Japan item, this one, and the Chinese lists have none.
확인: РИА Новости · Al Jazeera