Russia’s Duma speaker to meet with heads of Japan’s parliament houses

TOKYO, May 20. /TASS/. The speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, Sergey Naryshkin is due to hold talks in Tokyo on Wednesday with the heads of chambers of the Japanese parliament and then open the 10th jubilee Festival of Russian Culture in Japan. The visit comes amid Tokyo’s recent unfriendly steps, including sharing the West's assessment of the situation in Ukraine and imposing sanctions on Russia. Japan introduced entry bans and asset freezes for Russians who were allegedly "involved in the Ukrainian events." Five Russian banks were banned from the issuance of securities on the Japanese market. The visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Japan, originally planned for autumn 2014, has still not taken place amid the chill in the Russian-Japanese ties. Ahead of Naryshkin’s visit to Tokyo, media reports said citing sources that the Russian and Japanese sides were "negotiating a possible meeting" between the Duma speaker and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Naryshkin’s spokesperson later rejected the report. Naryshkin is scheduled to meet with House of Councilors chairman Masaaki Yamazaki and the speaker of the House of Representatives of Japan, Tadamori Oshima. In comments to his visit Naryshkin said earlier this week that he was set to hold "frank and substantive discussions on a whole range of issues both of bilateral and global character." He said inter-parliamentary ties remain one of the most important factors of the interstate cooperation. Read more