May 5 & 6, 2022

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation on May 4 announced that 63 Japanese, including Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo, will be banned from entering the country on the grounds that they are conducting “anti-Russia campaigns which have a strong pro-western bias”.

Regarding this announcement, Shii later on the same day on Twitter wrote, “I have criticized Russia based on the UN Charter and international law.” On the following day, he updated his tweet and wrote, “When criticizing Russia, I always stand on the UN Charter and international law. Russia, however, blames me for ‘having a pro-western bias’. This is just a slur against me. Russia made the silly decision that will lead to international isolation of the nation.”

In fact, Shii has severely criticized Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as “an obvious act of aggression infringing on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in violation of the United Nations Charter and international law (Shii’s statement dated February 24)”.

From this viewpoint, Shii has condemned Russia’s lawless acts: armed aggression which violates the UN Charter; war crimes prohibited under international humanitarian law; and the threat of first use of nuclear weapons which disregards the UN Charter and the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Past related article:
> Shii strongly condemns Russia's aggression against Ukraine [February 25, 2022]