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Japan approves new sanctions on senior defense officials and Russian companies

The Japanese government announced this Friday additional sanctions on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine, which entail the blocking of assets of 15 more Russian citizens, mainly senior defense officials, and of nine corporations from the military, naval and aerospace industries. “We will continue to take the appropriate measures in collaboration with the G7 countries and the international community as the situation evolves,” said the government spokesman, Hirokazu Matsuno, at a press conference at the end of a meeting of the Executive where the new sanctions were approved.

Among the 15 Russian citizens sanctioned are senior officials from the Russian Defense Ministry, such as Aleksey Krivoruchko, Timur Ivanov, Yunus-Bek Evkurov, Dmitry Bulgakov, Yuri Sadovenko and Nikolay Pankov, among others; as well as the director of the Department of Press and Information of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova. The director of the Russian Federal Service for Military Technical Cooperation, Dmitry Shugaev; the general director of the Rosoboronexport agency, Alexander Mikheev; and Andre Skoch, a member of the Duma (the lower house of the Russian Parliament). In addition, sanctions were approved against nine Russian organizations and corporations linked to the military, aerospace or naval industry, such as Russian Helicopters JSC, PJSC United Aircraft Corporation, SC United Shipbuilding Corporation and the state agency Rosoboronexport (responsible for the import and export of military material). defence), among others.

These sanctions on Russia are in addition to those recently approved by the Japanese government, which to date brings to 76 the number of Russian citizens whose assets have been blocked, including senior government officials and businessmen, along with a total of 12 Russian organizations and corporations. . Since the beginning of the conflict over the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Japan has imposed sanctions on Russian citizens, including President Vladimir Putin, as well as 12 Belarusians, including his counterpart Alexandr Lukashenko.

Japan’s financial authorities have also ordered cryptocurrency exchange houses based in its territory to block transactions with these assets that involve individuals or entities subject to sanctions against Russia and Belarus.

Japan, like other G7 countries and the European Union, has applied successive rounds of sanctions against Russia since the conflict began, including the exclusion of Russian banks from the SWIFT system or the ban on the export of semiconductors. , machinery for the oil industry and other technology with war potential. (Eph)