Following Tokyo’s agreement last week to give Ukraine over $3 billion, which would be repaid using Russian assets blocked in the EU due to Moscow’s invasion, Russia accused Japan on Thursday of betraying its country and participating in theft.
Speaking to reporters in Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the loan will worsen already strained ties between Russia and Japan, given Tokyo’s backing of Kyiv in its defense against Russian soldiers entering the country.
“We have long warned the Japanese side that participation in illegitimate experiments with the sovereign assets of the Russian Federation in any form will be regarded as complicity in theft,” Zakharova stated.
“We consider this to be a very aggressive and deceitful step. According to both legal and universal principles, it is inadmissible,” she continued.
Russia said earlier this month that talks with Japan on a peace treaty to formally end World War II were being hampered by Tokyo’s position on the Ukrainian war.
The signing of a treaty has already been hampered by a territorial dispute over four islands off the coast of Hokkaido, Japan, which are referred to as the Northern Territories in Japan and the Kurils in Russia.
Despite Japan’s claims to the islands, they were taken by Soviet forces at the end of the war and have stayed in Russian hands ever since.
