Putin Visits Islands Seized From Japan in World War II, Angering Tokyo

NEW: Putin visits islands seized from Japan in World War II, angering Tokyo as PM Sanae Takaichi remains a vocal critic over Russia's war in Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin just set foot on islands Japan has claimed for eighty years.

The Kurils, seized by the Soviet Union in the final days of World War Two, and never returned. Tokyo calls them the Northern Territories, and the dispute is the reason Russia and Japan have never actually signed a peace treaty ending that war. So a Russian president showing up there in person is not a casual stop on a tour. It is a message, and everyone in Tokyo heard it.

You can see him here, meeting officials in the Russian Far East. The timing is the point. Japan's Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, has been one of the sharper voices against Russia's war in Ukraine, and Moscow's answer is to plant the flag on the one piece of ground that stings Japan most.

Eighty one years after the war ended, these two countries still don't have a peace treaty. Tonight, that looks further away than ever.

This is Liu Yang, reporting for HIT.

Source Read the original reporting at nytimes.com