TOKYO, August 7 (RIA Novosti) – Japan has deplored Russia’s recent decision to ban or curb agricultural imports from countries imposing sanctions against the country, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Thursday.
“Russia’s adoption of such measures is truly lamentable,” the Kyodo news agency cited Yoshihide Suga as saying following Moscow’s announcement of the planned counter-measure.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered the government to come up with a list of agricultural and food products from the United States and European Union for one year.
The complete blacklist of banned products is expected to be announced Thursday.
At the height of the Ukrainian crisis, the United States imposed several rounds of sanctions against Russian officials, business people and companies and pressed for the allies in the West to follow its lead. The European Union, Switzerland, Canada, Australia and Japan soon caved in to the US sanctions push and came up with their own blacklists.
