Putin visits the Kuril Islands for the first time and Japan protests

Vladimir Putin visited Iturup in the Kuril Islands on Thursday, the first trip there by a sitting Russian president, meeting the regional governor and visiting a fish-processing plant, a hospital and a school. Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called the visit absolutely unacceptable and said it offends the sentiments of the Japanese people, while Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi summoned Russia's ambassador. The islands were seized by the Soviet Union at the end of the second world war and Tokyo still claims four of them.

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