MOSCOW, August 17. /TASS/. The Japanese embassy has failed to clearly explain why its ambassador ignored a summons to appear at the Russian foreign ministry in connection with Tokyo’s protest against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Iturup, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

"When we learned how Mrs. Takaichi and her foreign minister had characterized our president’s trip within his own country, to his own citizens, we immediately summoned the Japanese ambassador," he said when asked by TASS about Moscow’s reaction to Tokyo’s protest following Putin’s visit to Iturup.

"The embassy’s response was quite vague. After a pause, they explained that he (the ambassador - TASS) would not be able to come either on Friday, August 14 or on Monday, August 17, i.e. today, because he is either not in Moscow or is not feeling well. We did not quite understand," he noted.

According to Lavrov, such a response from the Japanese side was quite surprising, as "the ambassador is known for his manic energy." "He arrived here a couple of years ago and is constantly on the go, trying to meet with someone," the minister remarked.

In this context, the top Russian diplomat recalled that not long ago Ambassador Akira Muto had "brought over, without any prior agreement, even without notifying the ministry, a delegation of businessmen, with an unclear agenda and no one knew who they were planning to meet with." "But they still wound up meeting with representatives of our ministry and the ministry of industry and trade," he noted. "And all of a sudden it emerged that by the end of the visit the ambassador organized some sort of a working group, but later they started backtracking."

"Well, I don’t rule out that a man with such manic energy may not be ‘feeling well,’" Lavrov admitted. "But, anyway, we have summoned the ambassador. He must appear at the foreign ministry and we will talk both about the Japanese leadership’s conduct regarding President Putin’s visit to Russia’s Island of Iturup and about how an ambassador should work in his host country - honor its laws and the existing procedures for foreign diplomats in this country, or Russia in this case.".