MOSCOW, June 21. /TASS/. Japan’s latest package of anti-Russian sanctions is another step toward the complete breakdown of relations, the Russian Foreign Ministry said after a meeting between Lyudmila Vorobyova, director of the ministry’s third Asia department, and the director of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Europe department.

"We notified the Japanese diplomat about our principled views on the current situation in bilateral ties, which have degraded to an unprecedented low level due to the Fumio Kishida administration’s short-sighted hostile policy. We pointed to the lack of any signs of changes in Tokyo’s anti-Russian course. The 24th package of illegal unelated so-called sanctions against our country, which was adopted by the Japanese government on June 21, was yet another step toward ruining bilateral relations," it said.

The ministry warned Tokyo about tough and painful countermeasures. "In the context of the regional and global agenda, we pointed to the categorical inadmissibility of Japan’s attempts top ‘protest’ the development of comprehensive strategic partnership between Russia and North Korea and conveyed to the Japanese representative the essence of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s initiative on building a new security architecture in Eurasia," it said.