The Kuril Islands were, are and will be Russian land, said Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, commenting on the statement by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in connection with the arrival of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the island of Iturup.
"Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi can talk for as long as he wants, as if the Kuril Islands are "historically Japanese", it still won't change anything. Anyone who refuses to understand this will face the terrible consequences of their delusions," Medvedev wrote in English on X.
As the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council noted, the Kuril Islands "were, are and will remain Russian land."
On August 13, Vladimir Putin personally visited Iturup for the first time.
Russia and Since the middle of the last century, Japan has been negotiating to work out a peace agreement on the results of World War II. The main obstacle to this remains disagreements over the rights to the southern part of the Kuril Islands. After the end of the war, the entire archipelago was incorporated into the USSR, but Japan disputes the ownership of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and a group of small uninhabited islands. The Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly stressed that Russian sovereignty over these territories, which has an appropriate international legal formalization, is beyond doubt.