Vladimir Putin says disputed Kuril Islands' status "is enshrined in international documents"

Russian President Vladimir Putin made his first visit to the disputed Kuril Islands, a chain that has strained Russia-Japan relations since World War II. Speaking Wednesday from a Russian Pacific Fleet warship near Sakhalin, Putin said the islands’ status was determined by the war’s end and is reflected in written international agreements, adding that Moscow was still willing to work toward a peace treaty with Japan. The following day he toured Iturup, one of the islands Japan refers to as its Northern Territories. Tokyo, which considers Iturup and three neighboring islands its own, strongly protested the visit. The Soviet Union took the islands in 1945, and the dispute has blocked a formal peace treaty. Earlier negotiations have brought no resolution.