TOKYO, May 24. /TASS/. The government of Japan expanded its anti-Russian blacklists on Friday, once again accusing the Russian side of purchasing weapons from North Korea, according to a foreign ministry statement released on Friday.

The document says that one individual and nine Russian legal entities, as well as two companies from Cyprus, were added to the list. Among them is Vladimir Mikheichik, the director general of Russia’s 224th Flight Unit, and the company itself.

Apart from that, Japan blacklisted Russia’s Ashuluk testing range and the command of Russia’s military-transport aviation.

As part of its anti-Russian sanctions, Tokyo imposed sanctions on two Cyprus-based companies, IBEX Shipping and Azia Shipping.

In its statement, the Foreign Ministry of Japan once again accused Russia of alleged arms purchases from North Korea, which Moscow strongly rejected in the past.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier dismissed Western accusations of illegitimate military cooperation with Pyongyang.

Also, the Japanese foreign ministry once again criticized Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

Japanese sanctions, which were introduced in several stages due to the situation in Ukraine, already affect more than 1,000 people and over 120 entities from Russia. To date, the assets of Alfa Bank, VTB, VEB.RF, Novikombank, Otkritie Bank, Promsvyazbank, Rossiya Bank, Sberbank, Sovcombank, as well as about 40 other organizations and companies have been frozen. In addition, Japan has approved a list of goods and technologies prohibited for export to Russia, which already contains about 800 items. In particular, the export of cars worth more than 6 million yen (about $43,000) was prohibited. From August 9, 2023, Japan also banned supplies of gasoline and diesel cars with an engine capacity of more than 1.9 liters and hybrid cars to Russia.