KYODO NEWS




 

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday condemned Russia's nuclear threats as "outrageous" after President Vladimir Putin said he was putting his country's nuclear forces on high alert amid its invasion of Ukraine.

Kishida also said Japan will freeze the assets of Russian oligarchs held in Japan as part of efforts to step up financial sanctions against Moscow as a result of their military action in Ukraine.

Kishida made the comments after his government said it will freeze assets held by an additional four Russian banks, taking the total number of Russian lenders subject to Japanese sanctions to seven.

The move followed the European Union's latest financial sanctions to exclude seven Russian banks from a key international payment network known as SWIFT that is set to disrupt the country's trade and money transfers.

By freezing the assets of the banks subject to the EU sanctions, Japan is seeking to cooperate with other countries to ensure the effectiveness of measures to block Russia from SWIFT.

Japan supports the EU's decision and "will firmly implement (sanctions) with other Group of Seven members," Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki told reporters earlier in the day. Japan's restrictions will be implemented on April 2, according to the Finance Ministry.

The four banks are Russia's second-largest bank VTB Bank, Bank Otkritie, Sovcombank and Novikombank. The banks have close relationships with the Russian government, according to the ministry.

Other than the banks, the government on Thursday froze the assets of 18 more Russian officials, seven Belarusian top officials including President Aleksandr Lukashenko and Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin, and two organizations in the country, which has served as an entry point for Moscow's forces invading Ukraine.

The government also said it will impose stricter export control measures for Belarus.

The United States and the EU said last weekend a select number of Russian banks will be removed from SWIFT, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida later pledging that Japan will join the punitive effort.

The EU said Wednesday the seven banks will be excluded from the network provided by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, headquartered in Belgium, on March 12.

SWIFT connects more than 11,000 banks, other financial institutions and corporations in more than 200 countries and territories, according to its website.