The Kremlin excluded visa-free travel for the Japanese when visiting relatives in the Kuril Islands // Sands: unfriendly Japan should not count on visa exemptions
The Japanese authorities have taken a very unfriendly position towards Russia. For this reason, Tokyo has no reason to count on Moscow’s consent to return a visa-free regime for Japanese to visit relatives in the Southern Kuril Islands.
The Japanese authorities have taken a very unfriendly position towards Russia. For this reason, Tokyo has no reason to count on Moscow’s consent to return a visa-free regime for Japanese to visit relatives in the Southern Kuril Islands. This was stated by the press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov.
“Japan has joined all sanctions,” Peskov said. In fact, it is on the list of unfriendly countries.
He added that “so far on some, let’s say, mutual relaxation, probably, we can hardly hope.” The Kremlin spokesman stressed that Russia was not the initiator of the deterioration of relations.
The program of visa-free visits by Japanese citizens to relatives and burials in the Russian Kuril Islands was suspended in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. After the start of the SVO in 2022 and Tokyo’s accession to anti-Russian sanctions, Moscow stopped implementing agreements related to the program.
