The visit sparked an angry response from Tokyo.


“I don’t want to waste my time answering this question,” he said at a briefing in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky after visiting Kunashir, one of the four South Kuril islands Japan has been laying claims to.

The South Kurils became part of the former Soviet Union under international treaties signed after the Second World War.

 

Dmitry Medvedev has visited Kunashir for the second time. When he arrived in the island he said that the visit to the island is an important point in his programme.

 

Reportedly, in 2010, Dmitry Medvedev visited the island in his capacity as the Russian President.

 

He was the first ever Russian head of the state who visited Southern Kurils. The visit stirred up criticism of the Japanese authorities and described the visit as an “unacceptable rudeness”.

 

However Russia’s position remains unchanged: Russia’s sovereignty over the Kurils is irreversible.