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Vladimir Putin's visit to the Kuril Islands, where he dismissed Japan's territorial claims as a post-World War II reality, signals that Moscow considers the dispute settled by history rather than open to diplomacy.
This is not a provocation in the usual sense. It is a declaration that the question itself no longer qualifies as a question.
The signal from Moscow A sitting Russian president traveling to the Kuril Islands carries weight beyond the logistics of a state visit.
Putin did not simply restate Russia's legal position; he anchored the dismissal of Japan's claims in the post-war order, framing them as grievances that belong to a past the world has already adjudicated.
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