On January 30, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova made comments on the latest statements from Japanese financial officials regarding maintaining sanctions against Russia and supporting Ukraine. Moscow sees these moves from a cautious perspective and said it will re-evaluate foreign relations.
At a press conference in Russia, Ms. Zakharova directly mentioned the commitment of the Japanese Finance Minister to continue aid to the Kiev government. Moscow sees this as further evidence that Tokyo is persistently pursuing a diplomatic path that creates tension with its neighbor.
Ms. Zakharova said that these statements once again show a lack of goodwill in Japan's current policy. The Russian diplomatic representative affirmed that the Russian side will pay attention to this when building approaches related to Japan in the future.
Explaining the time when Japan made strong commitments, a representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry said that internal factors played a key role. Japan is entering a parliamentary election campaign and foreign affairs issues are often used as a tool to attract voters' votes.
According to Moscow's point of view, the reiteration by Japanese officials of their commitments to support Ukraine at this time is heavily formalistic, especially in the context of the parliamentary election campaign just beginning, speculations on the above topic are considered purely populist.
Moscow believes that Japanese politicians are trying to show consensus with Western allies in the G7 group rather than seeking practical solutions to the conflict.
The spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed concern about the consequences of these statements. She said that the state of relations between the two countries, which was already low, is now even more difficult.
