Medvedev: Kuril Islands Were, Are and Will Remain Russian Territory

Dragon Media News Desk

Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman and former president Dmitry Medvedev has said that the Kuril Islands are Russian territory and will remain so in the future.

His remarks came after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi strongly protested Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Iturup Island on Thursday, marking Putin’s first visit to the Kuril Islands.

“The Kuril Islands were, are and will remain Russian land,” Medvedev said.

He also warned that anyone who refuses to recognise what he described as the permanent status of the Kurils as Russian territory would face “terrible consequences,” directly referring to the Japanese prime minister.

Medvedev did not specify what kind of consequences he meant. His remarks are therefore best understood as a sharply worded political warning rather than a direct announcement of military action.

Following Putin’s visit to Iturup, Takaichi described the trip as “absolutely unacceptable” and said it had hurt the feelings of the Japanese people while making efforts to improve relations with Russia more difficult.

Moscow, however, has consistently maintained that the status of the Kuril Islands was settled by the outcome of the Second World War and that Russian sovereignty over the islands is not subject to reconsideration.

Japan claims Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai islets, referring to them collectively as its “Northern Territories.” The islands have been under Soviet and later Russian control since the closing stage of the Second World War and are currently administered as part of Russia’s Sakhalin Region.

The territorial dispute has prevented Russia and Japan from signing a formal peace treaty formally concluding their Second World War hostilities.

Medvedev himself became the first Russian head of state to visit the southern Kuril Islands when he travelled there as president in 2010. Since then, he has repeatedly said that Moscow’s position on the territorial status of the islands will not change.

Putin’s latest visit, followed by strong statements from both Moscow and Tokyo, has once again brought the long-running Kuril dispute to the forefront of Russian-Japanese diplomatic tensions.