Russia has attacked Japan’s censure of President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Iturup Island, claiming that its sovereignty and control over the Southern Kuril Islands are inviolable.
Japanese Ambassador Akira Muto was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, when Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin expressed a formal protest.
Moscow strongly condemned the anti-Russia sentiments made by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi.
Takaichi declared that all of the country’s islands are “inherent territories” following Putin’s visit to Iturup after the Pacific Fleet drills concluded in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.
However, Russia argues that the contested islands were transferred to them at the end of World War II.