The Kuril Islands: A Review of the Geopolitical Situation in the Northwestern Pacific in the Light of a Recent Russian Presidential Visit
President Vladimir Putin first visited the Kuril Islands, which lie along the eastern extremity of Russia, on 13 August 2026. He arrived on the southern island of Iturup following a stopover on Sakhalin Island, where he had witnessed Russia’s Pacific Fleet engaging in naval exercises. According to a Kremlin release, he visited the Yasny fish-processing complex (where he was captured on film sampling salmon roe, or ‘red caviar’), the Kurilsk Central District Hospital, and the Hero of Russia Eduard Norpolov Secondary General School. His “working trip”, during which he met with local residents, was rounded up in discussions with Valery Limarenko, Governor of the Sakhalin Oblast (administrative region). Putin had been preceded by former President Dmitry Medvedev, who became the first Russian head of state to visit the islands when he went to Kunashir in 2010.
Japan’s Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae deemed Putin’s visit as “absolutely unacceptable” and “incompatible with Japan’s consistent position on the Northern Territories”. In her view, the disputed islands belong to Japan “both historically and under international law.” Her Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi took the opportunity to summon Russian Ambassador Nikolay Nozdrev to his ministry to convey Japan’s official displeasure to the authorities in Moscow.
The Kuril Islands (Kurilskiye Ostrova) are an archipelago of 56 volcanic islands and islets in the Russian Far East that extend in a chain, for around 810 miles, from Cape Lopata (at the southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula) to the northeastern corner of Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido in the south. The islands separate the Sea of Okhotsk from the northern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous inhabitants were mostly Ainu people, defined by their own language, animist beliefs, and distinctive culture. Russian seafarers first visited the islands in the late 17th century. To put the remoteness of the islands in perspective, they are around 4, 500 miles from Moscow, with which there is no direct transport link. Moscow is in time zone UTC +3, while the Kuril Islands are in time zone UTC +11.
The four southernmost Kuril Islands of which Iturup (Etorofu) is the largest, also include Kunashir (Kunashiri), Shikotan, and the Habomai islets. They form part of a Russian administrative region-the Sakhalin Oblast- but are claimed by Japan, where they are known as the Northern Territories. These islands were occupied by the Soviet Union between 18 August and 3 September 1945, as part of the spoils of war. Ainu and Japanese residents of the islands were deported in 1947 on Stalin’s orders.
It is now an opportune moment to turn to the history books. The Treaty of Commerce and Navigation between Japan and Russia, better known as the Treaty of Shimoda, was signed on 7 February 1855. Article 2 of the first diplomatic and trade treaty between the Russian and Japanese Empires established their mutual border to be the line between the islands of Etorofu (Iturup) and Urup. Under the Treaty of Saint Petersburg, signed on 7 May 1875, Japan ceded South Sakhalin island to Russia in exchange for the entire Kuril archipelago. A subsequent series of 20th century treaties may help shed more light on the ongoing Russo-Japanese dispute over the Kuril Islands. Under the Yalta Agreement of 11 February 1945, the US and the UK agreed to Soviet demands for the cession of the Kuril Islands by Japan. The Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender, better known as the Potsdam Declaration, was signed on 26 July 1945, limiting Japanese sovereignty to the four islands of Honshu, Kyushu, Hokkaido, and Shikoku. Japan renounced “all right, title and claim to the Kuril Islands” under Article 2 of the Treaty of Peace with Japan, signed in San Francisco on 8 September 1951; the Soviet Union was, however, not a signatory. Japan and the Soviet Union signed a Joint Declaration on 19 October 1956 in Moscow, under which diplomatic and consular relations were restored and the USSR agreed to “transfer to Japan the Habomai Islands and the island of Shikotan”-subject to a formal Peace Treaty, which has yet to materialise. Iturup and Kunashir were not mentioned. In November 2018, Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo indicated his intention to take negotiations forward but any further progress on a Peace Treaty has since come to a standstill.
Putin has reasserted his authority over the Kuril Islands, and it would seem that Russian administration of these islands is currently non-negotiable. The islands have been Russified since 1945 and Russian infrastructure put in place. The population of around 20,000 is predominantly of Russian ethnicity. The strategic importance of the islands to Russia’s interests in the western Pacific cannot be underestimated. Russia’s Burevestnik military air base on Iturup has the largest airfield in the region. Russia also conducts regular naval exercises, occasionally jointly with China, in the waters surrounding the islands.
Russia has sent an unambiguous message to an increasingly assertive and militaristic Japan, which has become a close ally of the US, a benefactor of Ukraine, an imposer of sanctions on Russia, an antagonist of China, and a supporter of Taiwan, at a time when Moscow and Beijing continue to drift towards a closer relationship. Japan, which has no significant reserves of its own, is also dependent on Russian crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) for its energy security, being the single largest customer of the Sakhalin-2 LNG infrastructure project. Whichever way you look at it, and as decided by the sheer practicalities of the situation, the Kuril Islands seem destined to remain Russian for the foreseeable future.
Ashis Banerjee