Russian parliament speaker calls on Tokyo to lift anti-Russian sanctions

TOKYO, May 21. /TASS/. Speaker of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house Sergei Naryshkin, who is currently on a visit to Japan, has called on that country to lift anti-Russian sanctions as harming bilateral relations. The Japanese government "has followed villainous political forces and joined unilateral illegitimate measures - the so-called anti-Russian sanctions," he told journalists on Thursday. "The long such state of things is in place the bigger damage will be done to bilateral Russian-Japanese relations. Obviously, it is necessary to put an end to this. Politicians should act in the interests of their own people." Naryshkin’s visit to Japan is taking place on the backdrop of a number of unfriendly steps of Tokyo, which sustained Western sanctions against Russia over the situation in Ukraine. Thus, Tokyo banned the entry to the country for and froze assets of a number of Russian nationals allegedly "involved in the developments in Ukraine." Five Russian banks were prohibited to place their securities on the Japanese market. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Japan initially planned for the autumn of 2014 was cancelled over the chill in the relations between the two countries. Read more