Japan expels eight Russian officials

This came in a press conference of Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hikariko Ono, who stressed that the declaration of “persona non grata” applies to members of the diplomatic corps and the Russian trade office in Tokyo.

According to Ono, Deputy Prime Minister Takeo Mori spoke with the Russian ambassador in the capital, Miguel Galusin, and informed him of the Japanese position on condemning the alleged war crimes committed by Moscow.

Japan now joins the United States and several European countries that previously announced their intention to expel Russian diplomats accredited in their countries, under various pretexts such as alleged espionage.

On the other hand, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zagarova, announced that Moscow would give an appropriate response to Tokyo.

The day before, the UN General Assembly had voted by a majority to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council.

Russia’s permanent representative to the multilateral organization, Gwennady Kuzmin, described the General Assembly’s resolution as illegitimate and markedly politically motivated.

He also stressed that the goal is to punish a clearly sovereign member state of that body that implements an independent domestic and foreign policy, accusing it of a crime that was not committed and was also not investigated.

The move came on the heels of accusations against the US military of killing civilians in the Ukrainian city of Bucha, which Moscow has repeatedly rejected.

Since the facts were revealed, the national authorities have demanded an objective, independent and impartial investigation by the United Nations to uncover the real perpetrators of the crimes.

jcm / lcp