北方領土初訪問に意欲　観光発展へ「必ず行く」―プーチン氏

　ロシアのプーチン大統領は１１日、クリール諸島（北方領土と千島列島）について「残念ながら一度も足を運んだことがないが、必ず行ってみる」と述べた。プーチン氏は北方四島を訪れたことがなく、初訪問に意欲を示した格好だ。
　極東ハバロフスクでの会合で、ビジネス関係者らに発言した。国後島の空港近代化を求める声に賛意を表明した上で、クリール諸島の「観光資源を発展させなければならない。大変面白い場所だと言われている」と応じた。（2024/01/11-19:04）

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday showed an eagerness to visit for the first time the northwestern Pacific islands at the center of a decades-old territorial dispute with Japan.
   At a meeting with businesspeople in Khabarovsk in Russia's Far East, Putin said that, unfortunately, he has never been to the Kuril Islands but that he will surely go there. They include the disputed islands known as the Northern Territories in Japan.
   Expressing his support for a plan to modernize the airport in Kunashiri, one of the disputed islands, Putin said that tourism resources in the Kuril Islands should be developed.
   In 2010, then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited the Northern Territories, becoming the first Russian or Soviet leader to do so.
   Later, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and other senior Russian government officials traveled to the Northern Territories.