The order will come into force on June 17th and applies to cargo vehicles, excavators, locomotives, transformers, along with another group of goods “that contribute to strengthening Russia’s industrial infrastructure,” an official statement said.

Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Koichi Hagiuda said during a press conference that Japan is closely following the situation in Ukraine while coordinating its actions with the Group of Seven and more members of the international community.

The spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said in mid-April that Tokyo “complies with the instructions it receives from the other side of the ocean and imposes an ideological agenda on its foreign partners.”

Zakharova stressed that the current Japanese authorities “systematically destroy the positive development of mutually beneficial cooperation painstakingly built by their predecessors for many years.”

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