As the dispute over the Kuril Islands between Russia and Japan continues, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said the islands’ status would not change. Medvedev said the Kuril Islands are Russian territory and will remain so.
Medvedev made the remarks in a social media post in response to comments by Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi that the Kuril Islands historically belonged to Japan. He argued that Japan’s claim to the four islands would change nothing.
He said those who failed to understand that the Kuril Islands belong to Russia would face the terrible consequences of their misconceptions.
Visits to the Kurils by Russian leaders
Vladimir Putin personally visited Iturup Island for the first time on August 13.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also traveled to the Sakhalin region five times while holding various government positions. In November 2010, Medvedev visited Kunashir Island in the Southern Kurils, becoming the first Russian head of state to serve there, and inspected a geothermal power plant during the trip.
While serving as prime minister, Medvedev held a meeting on the socioeconomic development of Sakhalin in July 2012 and made a working visit to the Sakhalin region and the Kuril Islands in August 2015. During that visit, he inspected the new airport complex on Iturup. Medvedev also traveled to Sakhalin on a working visit in 2019 while he was prime minister.
The Russia-Japan territorial dispute
At the end of World War II, in 1945, the Soviet Union established control over the Kuril Islands, which stretch from the Kamchatka Peninsula to Japan’s Hokkaido Island. Located between the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk, the archipelago has been at the center of the territorial dispute between Russia and Japan ever since.
Japan refers to the southern part of the archipelago as the “Northern Territories” and claims four islands: Kunashir, Iturup, Shikotan and the Habomai group. Russia, meanwhile, maintains that it holds sovereignty over the islands and that the matter is not open to debate.
The Kuril Islands issue remains one of the main obstacles to the signing of a peace treaty between Russia and Japan. The parties’ attempts to reach a compromise in negotiations have produced no results.
