Russia bans entry to Japan's PM, officials
Moscow says Israeli 'mercenaries' fighting in Ukraine
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Russia said Wednesday it has banned entry to several dozen Japanese officials, including Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, after Tokyo joined international sanctions against Moscow over its military campaign in Ukraine.
"The administration of F. Kishida launched an unprecedented anti-Russian campaign (and) allows unacceptable rhetoric against the Russian Federation, including slander and direct threats," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
"It is echoed by public figures, experts, representatives of Japanese media, who are completely engaged by the attitudes of the West towards our country," the ministry added.
It accused Tokyo of taking "practical steps aimed at dismantling good neighbourly ties, damaging the Russian economy and the international prestige of the country".
The ministry said it was "indefinitely" banning from Russia 63 Japanese citizens, including the prime minister, cabinet members, lawmakers, journalists and professors.
Israeli 'mercenaries' fighting in Ukraine
A spokeswoman for Russia's foreign ministry on Wednesday claimed Israeli mercenaries were fighting alongside the far-right Azov Regiment in Ukraine, further fuelling tensions with Israel after Russia suggested Adolf Hitler had "Jewish blood".
"Israeli mercenaries are practically shoulder to shoulder with Azov militants in Ukraine," Maria Zakharova told pro-Kremlin Sputnik radio in an interview.
Azov rose to prominence in 2014, when its far-right activists took up arms to fight pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region but have since fallen under the command of Ukraine's military.
They have been fighting alongside the Ukrainian army against Russian troops, which on February 24 launched a military campaign in the pro-Western country.
Its members are part of the Ukrainian resistance in the port city of Mariupol, holed up inside the Azovstal steel plant against which Russian forces launched a major assault on Tuesday.
By suggesting that Israelis are fighting alongside Azov -- viewed by Russia as "fascists" and "Nazis" -- Moscow is compounding tensions that started after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Sunday that Hitler had "Jewish blood".
His remarks sparked outrage in Israel, which called the statement "unforgivable and outrageous" and a "terrible historical error".
Russia's foreign ministry on Tuesday accused Israel of backing "the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv". Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky is of Jewish descent.