Japan’s government on Thursday imposed sanctions on four additional major Russian banks and froze the assets of Russian oligarchs in a bid to ramp up pressure on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. The Finance Ministry said that the assets of VTB Bank, Sovcombank, Novikombank, and Otkritie bank will be blocked starting from April 2 as a result of the sanctions. Japan has previously sanctioned three Russian banks, namely VEB, Promsvyazbank, and Bank Rossiya. The assets of Russian oligarchs would also be blocked in Japan. The Japanese government also imposed sanctions on 18 more Russian officials and seven Belarusian leaders, including Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko. The ministry added that Japan will tighten controls on exports of controlled items to Belarus. The new sanctions come on the heels of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s recent announcement that Japan will sanction Belarus for allowing Russian forces to use its territory to launch their …