Russian President Vladimir Putin is not planning to visit Japan to attend the state funeral of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday, adding that the level of Russian participation will be determined later.

“No, Putin has no plans to visit Japan, to participate in the funeral. The level [of participation] will be determined later. Putin is not going,” he said in reply to a question from TASS.

At a regular press conference on Monday, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiji Kihara said that Tokyo had notified all countries with which it has diplomatic relations, including Russia, of the date and place of the state funeral.

Japan’s government had previously approved a decision to hold a state funeral on September 27 for Abe, who died in the July 8 attack. The ceremony, which is expected to be attended by a large number of foreign delegations, including heads of state, will be held at the Budokan Arena (Martial Arts Hall) in Tokyo, near the Imperial Palace.

Last week, the Mainichi newspaper reported, citing government sources, that Japan does not intend to invite Mr. Putin to Abe’s funeral. It stressed that this was due in part to the fact that Japan had banned Russian officials from entering the country as part of the sanctions imposed due to situation around Ukraine. Abe and Putin developed a warm, friendly relationship during his premiership. They met a total of 27 times and addressed each other on a first name basis. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in 2020, after Abe stepped down as prime minister, that relations between the two leaders “were truly friendly, mutually respectful and based on personal sympathy”.

Source: Agencies