Japanese officials have gone so far as to brazenly tell Moscow which regions of its own country its leader can visit, Maria Zakharova noted

The four southernmost islands of the chain also are claimed by Japan, which calls them the Northern Territories.

Japanese foreign ministry claims that all the "northern territories," as Tokyo refers to the southern part of the Kuril Islands, including Iturup, are an "ancestral Japanese…

Putin visits Etorofu, known in Russia as Iturup, that Tokyo claims as its own territory