The Japanese Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday the imposition of additional sanctions on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine, which will result in the blocking of assets of 17 more Russian citizens, mainly parliamentarians.
“Stronger sanctions need to be imposed so that the invasion ceases as soon as possible,” government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno said today at a press conference following a meeting of the Executive where the sanctions were approved.
“We will continue to work with the international community,” said the government spokesman of measures being taken “in coordination with the G7 countries.”
Among the 17 Russian citizens sanctioned are eleven members of the Duma (the lower house of the Russian Parliament) and magnate Viktor Vekselberg, president of the Russian energy conglomerate Renova; as well as five relatives of billionaire Yuri Kovalchuk, the majority shareholder of Banco Rossia and nicknamed “Putin's banker”.
Kovalchuk himself was previously included in the sanctions of the Japanese authorities, which thus bring to 61 the number of Russian citizens whose assets they have frozen.
These sanctions on Russia are in addition to those approved a week ago by the Japanese government, which blocked the assets of another thirty senior government officials and businessmen, as well as the ban on the export of machinery for the oil industry.
Since the beginning of the conflict over the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Japan has imposed sanctions on Russian citizens, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as 12 Belarusians, including his counterpart Alexandr Lukashenko.
Japan's financial authorities have also ordered cryptocurrency exchanges based in their territory to block transactions with these assets involving individuals or entities subject to sanctions against Russia and Belarus.
Japan, like other G7 countries and the European Union (EU), has applied successive rounds of sanctions on Russia since the conflict began, including the exclusion of Russian banks from the Swift system or the ban on the export of semiconductors and other technology with war potential.
(With information from EFE)
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