Vladimir Putin’s unprecedented visit to the disputed southern Kuril Islands signals a broader joint effort by Moscow and Beijing to pressure Japan, according to analysts.
They said the coordinated push aimed to target Tokyo over a range of friction points, including Western sanctions on Russia and Japan’s stance on Taiwan.
The Russian president paid a symbolic visit to the Kurils – a volcanic chain north of Hokkaido that Japan calls the Northern Territories – on Thursday, just ahead of Saturday’s anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II.
It was Putin’s first visit to the disputed islands as president. In 2010, then-president Dmitry Medvedev became the first Russian leader to visit the disputed territory that the Soviet Union took control of during the final days of the second world war.
Putin’s trip came shortly after he personally observed the final phase of major Pacific Fleet exercises off Sakhalin, north of the Kurils.