Putin’s First Visit to the Kuril Islands: Why Japan’s Northern Territories Stopped Being a Bargaining Chip

Putin made his first visit to Etorofu on August 13, 2026. Why can Russia never return Etorofu and Kunashiri while it offered Shikotan and Habomai in 1956? The Sea of Okhotsk bastion, a 1960 Soviet memorandum, and 80 years of frozen talks, explained from Japanese primary sources.