This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
Russia says it has barred entry to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kisida and more than 60 others, including cabinet ministers, media membersm and intellectuals, for the government’s sanctions against Moscow over its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
The Foreign Ministry in Moscow said in a statement on May 4 that the ban is permanent.
The list of those barred from entering Russia include Foreign Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, Finance Minister Shun’ichi Suzuki, Defense Minister Nobuo Kisi, and Hirokazu Matsuno, the general secretary of the cabinet.
Senior officials from the Yomiuri Shimbun Group, which publishes Japan’s leading newspaper, and the Nikkei Group are also on the list.
Japan has followed the United States, the European Union, and many of their allies in imposing several rounds of crippling sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine.
The European Commission is considering expanding its sanctions to include the assets of Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, according to news reports on May 4.
The patriarch has been added to a draft blacklist that includes other individuals sanctioned over the war in Ukraine, the reports say. Kirill has made a number of statements in solidarity with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s policies toward Ukraine.
If he is included on the sanctions list — a move that requires the backing of EU states — he would be subject to an asset freeze and a travel ban.
EU diplomats are set to meet this week to discuss the sanction, which is part of a wider proposal by the European Commission that includes an oil embargo and restrictions on Russian banks.
Earlier on May 4, the Russian Orthodox Church reacted to a comment by Pope Francis, who urged Kirill in an interview with an Italian newspaper published on May 3 not to become the Kremlin’s “altar boy.” The Russian Orthodox Church told the Vatican that such remarks would hurt dialogue between the churches.
