Moscow has imposed an entry ban on two Japanese companies' heads for anti-Russian rhetoric, a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Alexander Lukashevich said on Wednesday.
Two Japanese extremist organizations, Brotherhood Community Devoted for Great Japan and Solidarity League for the Return of Northern Territories have been banned from entering Russia over the desecration of the Russian flag by its members on Northern Territories Day.
Japanese right-wing campaigners dragged the Russian flag along the ground outside the Russian Embassy in Tokyo on February 7, demanding the return of a group of the disputed Kuril Islands in Russia's Far East. The embassy sent a protest note to the Japanese Foreign Ministry just after the incident.
Later that day, the Russian Embassy in Tokyo had also received an envelope containing a bullet and a letter which said "The Northern Territories are Japanese land."
"The baseless territorial claims to Russia, backed by Japanese authorities, turned radical and are being replicated. It's no wonder that in such an atmosphere the extremists feel free to carry out their outrageous tricks," Lukashevich said.
Russia expressed diplomatic protest to Japan on Wednesday after Tokyo dismissed Moscow's demand for criminal proceedings over the desecration of the Russian flag.
Japan stands firmly on its position that the extremists had desecrated not the Russian flag, but "a self-made object," resembling a flag, the Russian Embassy in Japan said.
Both Japan and Russia have laid claims to the South Kuril Islands, called the Northern Territories by the Japanese, since they were annexed by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II. The dispute has prevented the two countries from signing a peace treaty to formally end hostilities.
MOSCOW, March 2 (RIA Novosti)
