Vladimir Putin visited the Kuril Irlands in the Russian Far East for the first time on Thursday, prompting a ‘strong’ protest by Japan which also claims the territory.
Russian-Japanese relations have long been dogged by tensions over the contested islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories and seized by the Soviet Union in 1945.
The Kremlin posted a video of the president in the Kuril Islands, with Russian media saying he visited a fish-processing plant where he was given caviar.
Putin travelled to the Kurils after visiting the nearby Russian island of Sakhalin, where Russia’s navy was conducting drills.
While there he also
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