Japan to freeze assets of four more Russian banks from April 2 after Ukraine conflict

Japan will freeze the assets of four additional Russian banks from April 2, Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said on Thursday, taking to seven the total number Tokyo has slapped with such sanctions. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's cabinet approved the decision to freeze the assets of VTB Bank, Sovcombank, Novikombank and Otkritie, the Ministry of Finance said in a document. The move will take effect on April 2, a ministry official said. The banks are all closely related to the Russian government. Earlier, Japan announced that it would freeze the assets of the Rossiya bank, Promsvyazbank and VEB.RF.

On March 1, Japan's government approved the introduction of export sanctions against 49 Russian companies and organizations, including Rosoboronexport, Rostec, the FSB and the SVR. Additionally, a decision was made to freeze the assets of Russian officials and banks. The sanctions were imposed on Russian President Vladimir Putin, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Secretary of Russia’s Security Council Nikolay Patrushev, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and General Chief-of-Staff Valery Gerasimov. Additionally, a ban on exporting products of general designation which may bolster Russia’s military potential was introduced. On February 24, Putin said in a televised address that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in order to protect people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories. Following this, the US, the EU, the UK and a number of other countries, including Japan, announced the introduction of sanctions against Russian legal entities and private individuals.