Japanese official visits Russia over asset seizure - NHKニュース

Japan is responding after Russia seized assets belonging to a subsidiary of Japan Tobacco. A senior government official has visited Moscow to lodge a protest.

Ishigaki Tomoaki is the deputy director-general of the Foreign Ministry's European Affairs Bureau. On Friday, he met Lyudmila Georgievna Vorobyova, head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Third Asian Department, and called for the measure to be immediately reversed.

Ishigaki was accompanied by senior officials from the Japanese Embassy in Moscow. Sources say they lodged a protest.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Thursday placing four local units of JT International under temporary Russian management.

Ishigaki told NHK that he clearly conveyed Japan's position.

Sources say the Japanese side also called for the immediate release of a Hokkaido Shimbun Press reporter detained last month in Russia's Far East on suspicion of espionage.