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Japan's New Sanctions Against Russia 'Unfriendly, Short-Sighted' – Moscow

© Fotolia / vvoeRed Square. Moscow
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Japan’s announcement of further sanctions against Moscow is “unfriendly and short-sighted,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday in a commentary.

TOKYO, July 29 (RIA Novosti) - Japan’s announcement of further sanctions against Moscow is “unfriendly and short-sighted,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday in a commentary.

“We consider Japan’s announcement of July 28 of so-called additional sanction measures against Russia to be unfriendly and short-sighted and based on a grave mistake in the interpretation of the real reasons that are occurring in Ukraine,” the ministry said.

The ministry said it considers tying sanctions with the Malaysia Airlines plane crash in Ukraine to be inappropriate.

“It looks particularly inappropriate to tie these measures to the Malaysian airliner crash on the territory of Ukraine with Tokyo’s accompanying comments ‘to induce Russia to action,” the ministry said.

The ministry also stressed that additional sanctions against Russia will harm bilateral relations and cause regression, and highlighted that Tokyo needed to take this into consideration.

“Tokyo's imposing new sanctions against Russia, no matter what reservations were arranged, will inevitably harm the entire complex of bilateral relations and will cause regression. Japan needs to take this into consideration," the ministry said, adding that Tokyo announced its sanctions under Washington’s orders.

“Japan's stunt proves that Tokyo’s numerous assurances of attempting to continue its efforts in developing relations with Russia are simply a smokescreen covering the inability of Japan’s politicians to break out of Washington’s wake and carry out their own individual line [of policy] that corresponds to the root national interests of their country,” the ministry said.

On Monday, Japan released a list of new sanctions against Russia over the crisis in Ukraine. The sanctions envisage freezing of assets of the individuals “involved in Crimea annexation and responsible for destabilizing the situation in Ukraine” and restrict imports from Crimea. Tokyo will also freeze funds for new projects in Russia in accordance with the policy of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The sanctions are yet to be officially endorsed by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet but that decision is expected later this week.

US Secretary of State John Kerry thanked Japanese Foreign Affairs Minister Fumio Kishida for the sanctions put in place against Russia.

The United States and EU member states have already imposed sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis. In addition to that, the European Commission has suggested sectoral sanctions against Russia that will be concerned with capital market access, the defense sector, dual-use goods and sensitive technology export in the energy sector.

Moscow has said many times that threatening Russia with sanctions was inappropriate and counterproductive. Russia has also pointed out that it is not involved in the conflict in Ukraine.

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