Russian President Vladimir Putin has visited Iturup, one of the disputed Kuril Islands claimed by both Russia and Japan. The stop was part of a wider tour of Russia’s far east.
Danish broadcaster DR reports that Putin has been to the island of Iturup for the first time. DR bases its account on the Russian state news agency Tass.
Iturup is not an ordinary island. It is part of the Kuril chain, which lies between Russia and Japan, and both countries claim the territory. According to Tass, Putin was shown the Yasny fish factory during his time on the island.
The dispute over the islands is tied directly to the end of the Second World War. Russia and Japan never signed a formal peace treaty, and the territorial disagreement over the Kurils has been named by Ritzau as the largest obstacle to such an agreement.
The Soviet Union took control of the Kuril Islands a few days after the Second World War ended. Since then, first the Soviet Union and later Russia have maintained a military presence on the islands, according to the news agency AFP, as cited by DR. The islands have been a point of contention between Japan and Russia since the 1700s.
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Fish, gold and silver
The Kuril Islands have around 20,000 inhabitants, DR reports. The island group is rich in minerals, including gold and silver, and the waters around the islands offer particularly good conditions for fishing.
Tass framed the visit as part of Putin’s broader tour of eastern Russia. The agency also linked the trip to Russian development of the islands and to Russian sovereign control over them.
Putin’s stop on Iturup was not presented as a standalone event. DR reports that he passed through the Kurils as one leg of a larger journey through Russia’s eastern regions. The report does not point to a separate immediate trigger for the visit, such as a summit, a deadline or a court ruling.
The Kurils remain one of the few unresolved territorial questions dating from the end of the Second World War in Asia. The absence of a peace treaty means Russia and Japan have formally remained without a concluding postwar settlement for more than eight decades. DR notes that the territorial question over the island group has been the central sticking point.
Tass reported the visit on August 13, 2026, and DR published its account the same morning. Neither report indicated any Japanese response at the time of publication.
