Japan protests as Putin visits disputed islands

Vladimir Putin has made his first visit to the Kuril Islands, a chain disputed between Russia and Japan since the end of the Second World War. Japan has lodged a formal protest.

The BBC and the Independent both report the visit and Japan's response. The islands have been administered by Russia since the war, but Japan maintains a claim to the southernmost territories - a position it has held for nearly eighty years.

The timing is instructive. Russia's eastern flank has received less attention than its western war, but the territorial dispute remains live. The islands sit at the junction of strategic sea lanes and fishing grounds; both countries treat sovereignty as non-negotiable. When a leader visits contested ground, the visit itself is the message - not to the neighbour, but to the home audience.

Watch whether this draws any response from Tokyo beyond the protest. Japan has limited levers, but it has options: security arrangements, energy deals, rhetoric at multilateral forums. The next move will show whether this was theatre or the opening of a new front in a very old argument.