By Tetsushi Kajimoto
TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan will freeze the assets of four additional Russian banks, Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said on Thursday, taking to seven the total number to be slapped with such sanctions by Tokyo.
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 freezing of the assets of the banks, all closely related to the Russian government, will take effect on April 2, a ministry official said.
Targets of asset freezes also include dozens of individuals including Aleksandr Lukashenko, president of Belarus.
“Japan will firmly implement (the sanctions) together with other members of G7,” the Group of Seven advanced nations, Suzuki told reporters.
The decision came on top of the government’s announcement on Tuesday that it will freeze assets of Russia state-owned Promsvyazbank and Vnesheconombank, as well as the country’s central bank.
Tokyo’s banking sector sanctions will be completed with the addition of the four banks, which the European Union has decided to exclude from the SWIFT international settlement network, Japanese officials told reporters.
(Writing by Leika Kihara and Tetsushi KajimotoEditing by Chang-Ran Kim and Kim Coghill)
