The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that “the administration of V. Kishida launched an unprecedented anti-Russian campaign, and allows unacceptable rhetoric against the Russian Federation, including slander and direct threats.”
“This is echoed by public figures, experts and representatives of the Japanese media, who are fully involved in the West’s attitudes toward our country,” she added.
The ministry accused Tokyo of taking “practical steps aimed at dismantling good-neighborly relations and harming the Russian economy and the country’s global standing.”
The statement indicated that the Russian government subsequently banned 63 Japanese citizens from entering Russia “indefinitely”, led by the prime minister, government ministers, legislators, journalists and university professors.
According to the ministry, the decision to ban travel to Russia is also a response to “personal sanctions imposed by the Japanese government on Russian citizens, including senior leaders of the state.”
During a visit to Italy during which he met Pope Francis in the Vatican and in Rome with his Italian counterpart Mario Draghi, Kishida said that the Russian decision was “unacceptable.”
In a statement he made to Japanese journalists accompanying him on his trip, he added, “It was Russia that brought Japan-Russia relations to this level. Despite that, Russia makes this kind of statement. We cannot accept that,” describing the Russian behavior as “a clear violation.” of international law”.
And the already complex Russian-Japanese relations have deteriorated sharply since the start of the war in Ukraine, as Tokyo joined the West in imposing sanctions on Moscow.
Japan also decided to stop imports of Russian coal while continuing its participation in offshore oil and gas projects near Sakhalin in the Russian Far East.
In April, Tokyo again declared, for the first time since 2003, that four small islands located in the Kuril Archipelago and adjacent to the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido are “illegally occupied” by Russia.
The Soviet army invaded these four islands, which Japan calls “the lands of the North”, in the last days of World War II in August 1945, then Moscow annexed them.
This dispute prevents the signing of a peace treaty between the two countries since the end of World War II.
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