Updated 3:35 p.m. Moscow time
MOSCOW, September 24 (RIA Novosti) – Japan’s new sanctions against Russia will have a negative impact on the Tokyo’s geopolitical position and will send a wrong message to Japanese businesses, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
“By adopting anti-Russian sanctions under external pressure, Tokyo damages its own geopolitical positions and sends a wrong signal to its business community, first of all,” the ministry said in a statement.
Moscow also said it was “disappointed” by the measures and viewed them as “an unfriendly act that demonstrates the Japanese side’s inability to pursue its own independent foreign policies.”
The Japanese government imposed additional sanctions against Russia on Wednesday, targeting five major Russian banks, including its two biggest lenders, Sberbank and VTB, a source in the country's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
The sanctions also target Gazprombank and Rosselkhozbank, Russia's third and sixth-largest banks in terms of net assets, as well as Vnesheconombank, a state corporation that manages Russian state debts, pension funds and other state financial activities.
In early August, the Japanese government implemented sanctions against 39 politicians and officials who represented the Republic of Crimea, as well as the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics.
Russian President Vladimir Putin repeatedly stated that using sanctions in foreign policy is not effective and never yields any results, warning that sanctions cause certain damage to those using this measure.
