Kremlin slams Japan’s ‘unfriendly’ stance amid G7 oil price cover talk

The Kremlin criticised Japan on Wednesday (Jul 6) over what it called a “very unfriendly position” towards Russian federation, saying this affected the development of economic relationships, including in energy.

Japan has joined various other members of the Group of Seven (G7) wealthy democracies in imposing sweeping economic sanctions on Russia over its army actions in Ukraine.

Moscow has also been annoyed by G7 plans to cap Russian oil prices and has taken aim at Japan over comments made by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida over the weekend in which he disclosed for the first time the dimensions of any cap.

“We have reached an agreement that the international neighborhood will establish a system in which the price of Russian oil will be capped at about half the present price, and the global community will not purchase or allow the buy of oil over that level, inch Kishida said during a speech while advertising for Jul ten elections in The japanese.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “Japan is certainly taking a very unfavorable position towards The ussr. In any case, such an unfavorable stance does not assist to facilitate relations upon trade and the economic climate, including the energy dialogue.

“We talked about Mr Kishida’s suggestion yesterday and have stated that this is only an initiative announced, there have been no consolidated choices taken, ” Peskov said. “It is usually doubtful whether this kind of decisions could be taken, frankly speaking. ”

The cap scheme was first mooted last month by US Treasury Admin Janet Yellen as part of a campaign to improve pressure on Moscow to end its intrusion of Ukraine. The shape of the final offer and price level have yet to be announced.

Russia’s former president Dmitry Medvedev warned upon Tuesday that worldwide oil prices may exceed US$300 to US$400 per barrel if the price cover proposals were implemented.

Medvedev furthermore said Japan “would have neither oil nor gas through Russia, as well as simply no participation in the Sakhalin-2 LNG project” as a result, pressuring the gives of Mitsui & Co and Mitsubishi Corp, which are shareholders in the project.

Japan’s government spokesperson Seiji Kihara stated on Wednesday he or she was aware of Medvedev’s remarks but dropped to comment on them.

He furthermore declined to confirm if there was a specific cap level being considered by the G7, saying only that the “specifics of a cap and pricing level are yet to be made a decision and will be discussed amongst G7 members”.

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