TOKYO, August 5 (RIA Novosti) – Japan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry released a list of 40 individuals and two entities affected by new sanctions against Russia over Ukraine that were approved by Japan’s Cabinet earlier Tuesday.
Japan imposed sanctions on Ukraine’s former President Viktor Yanukovych, as well as on 39 high-profile Crimean officials and a Crimea-based Chernomorneftegaz oil and gas company, as part of the third round of sanctions against Russia.
The new list of Japan’s sanctions includes Ukraine’s fugitive ex-President Yanukovych, who fled to Russia amid fears for his safety following the February coup in Ukraine, as well as 39 senior Crimean officials, such as Crimea’s acting Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov; his economic adviser and former Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Temirgaliev; Crimean Rear Adm. Denis Berezovsky who defected to Russia after being sent to the peninsula by Ukrainian authorities; Alexei Chaly, former governor of the Crimean port city Sevastopol; former chief of the Crimean branch of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) Pyotr Zima; the Crimean parliament speaker's adviser Yuri Zherebtsov; Crimean senators Olga Kovitidi and Segrei Tsekov; chairmen of Crimea and Sevastopol electoral commissions, Mikhail Malyshev and Valery Medvedev; Sevastopol Governor Sergei Menyailo.
The sanctions will also affect Russian Federal Migration Service in Crimea head Petr Yarosh; Federal Migration Service's Sevastopol division head Oleg Kozhura; the Crimea Prosecutor General Natalia Poklonskaya; Sevastopol Prosecutor General Igor Shevchenko; commander of Donetsk People’s Republic militia Igor Strelkov; one of the heads of the Luhansk Guard German Prokopiev; leader of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, Valeriy Bolotov; the Donetsk People’s Republic’s Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Purgin; Chairman of Donetsk People’s Republic’s Supreme Council Denis Pushilin; the Deputy Head of the Donbas volunteer corps Sergey Tsiplakov; ex-People’s Mayor of Slaviansk Vyacheslav Ponomarev; commander of Donetsk Republic self-defense forces Igor Bezler; Donetsk People’s Republic Defense Minister Igor Kakidzyanov; parliament speaker of Novorossiya, the union of the self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine, Oleg Tsarev; electoral committee head of Donetsk People’s Republic Roman Lyagin; Donetsk People’s Republic Prime Minister Alexander Borodai; Donetsk People's Republic Security Minister Alexander Khodakovsky; Deputy Prime Minister for Social Affairs of Donetsk People’s Republic Alexandr Kalyussky; Information and Mass Communications Minister of Donetsk People’s Republic Alexander Khryakov; acting chairman of Donetsk People’s Republic Council of Ministers Marat Bashirov; chairman of the Assembly of self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic Vasily Nikitin; the chairman of Luhansk People’s Republic Supreme Council Alexei Karyakin; Interior Minister of Luhansk People’s Republic Yuri Ivakin; the Defebae Minister of Luhansk People’s Republic Igor Plotnitsky; commander of a group of Don Cossacks Nikolai Kozitsyn; and head of Luhansk self-defence leaders Alexei Mozgovoi. The blacklist also includes a petroleum products terminal in the Crimean city of Feodosia.
The Japanese government released this list of new sanctions against Russia amid Ukrainian crisis on July 28. The measures envisage the freezing assets of individuals and entities “involved in the Crimea annexation and responsible for destabilizing the situation in Ukraine."
Tokyo will still implement new projects in Russia in accordance with the policies of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) adopted by the European Union and impose limitations on Crimean goods.
Japan was the last G7 member to apply sanctions against Russia. In March it stopped talks with Russia on the easing of visa requirements, and denied visas to Russian officials on April 23, without making their names public.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has already said it considers the new sanctions unfriendly. Moscow pointed out that the new sanctions brought Russia-Japan relations a few steps back, something that Tokyo should realize.
