Russian President Vladimir Putin has visited the Kuril Islands for the first time, according to the local state-run TASS news agency on the 13th (local time).

According to AFP, President Putin, who is currently touring Siberia and the Far East, directly visited the Kuril Islands on this day to inspect the flagship of the Russian Pacific Fleet and receive training reports.

President Putin then held a work meeting with Valery Limarenko, governor of the Sakhalin Region, followed by visits to a local seafood processing plant, a hospital, and a school.

This marks President Putin's first visit to the Kuril Islands.

While Dmitry Medvedev, a close confidant of President Putin and former Russian president, became the first Russian leader to visit the islands during his presidency in 2010, President Putin himself had not previously visited the region directly.

The day before, during a visit to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in the Russian Far East near Japan, President Putin openly expressed dissatisfaction, stating, "Japan has imposed unilateral sanctions on Russia without properly grasping the root cause of the Ukraine situation."

He also remarked, "We do not threaten Japan, nor do we make any territorial claims against Japan."

AFP reported that such moves by President Putin could further strain relations between Russia and Japan, which claims sovereignty over parts of the Kuril Islands.

Japan refers to the four islands located north of Hokkaido and at the southern end of the Russian Kuril Islands—Kunashir, Iturup, Shikotan, and Habomai—as its Northern Territories and has been locked in a territorial dispute with Russia over them.

Although the Kuril Islands currently have a population of only 20,000, the region is rich in mineral resources such as gold and silver, as well as abundant surrounding fisheries.

The Soviet Union, the predecessor to Russia, occupied the region in 1945 toward the end of World War II, expelling Japanese residents and stationing military forces there.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)