News Snapshot:
A visit by Russia’s premier this week to an island chain claimed by Japan has fuelled a fresh bilateral disagreement between both sides, and a suggestion that Moscow’s actions were deliberately timed during the Tokyo Olympics to bring about a “toned-down” response from Japan. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin’s visit on Monday to the Kurils, also known as the Northern Territories, was the first by a Russian premier since a constitutional amendment last July barred Russia from ceding territory. The island chain, with a population of about 20,000, was seized by the Soviet Union after Japan ’s World War II surrender...
