President Vladimir Putin, following his visit to the Russian Far East and viewing Naval exercises there on Aug. 12, today visited Iturup, the largest of the Kuril Islands north of Japan. He toured a fish processing factory, the central Sakhalin hospital, and a secondary school, seeing their gymnasium and museum, and talking to students. Photos on the Kremlin site convey the point that the Russian community is there to stay.
Secondly, Putin met with the military leaders in the Kurils, including the Commander of the Pacific Fleet Viktor Liina, Head of the Federal Security Service’s Border Directorate for the Sakhalin Region Sergei Makhorin, and Acting Commander of the 68th Guards Army Corps of the Defense Ministry Forces Alexei Shvedov.
Russia officially took control of the Kuril Islands after World War Two. Japan accepted the process, but later protested and has never signed a peace agreement due to the conflict. A pathway toward resolution of the territorial dispute was underway in recent decades, as Putin summarized in his remarks Aug. 12, but it was interrupted
