Photo/Illutration Russian Ambassador Mikhail Galuzin addresses the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in February. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Mikhail Galuzin, a staunch defender of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as his nation’s ambassador to Japan, will leave his post in November, according to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

Galuzin has been in the news in recent months as Japan and Russia played a tit-for-tat game in expelling diplomats after they were designated persona non grata.

On Aug. 4, Galuzin visited Hiroshima to place flowers at the Cenotaph for Atomic Bomb Victims.

Galuzin was not invited to the annual ceremony held Aug. 6 to remember the tens of thousands of people who perished in the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Russia and its ally Belarus were not invited on grounds their presence might deter representatives of other nations from attending. Russia first sent a representative to Hiroshima in 2000, becoming the first major nuclear power to do so. Russian officials also attended subsequent ceremonies.

RIA Novosti released its report on Oct. 28, citing sources at the Russian Embassy in Tokyo. The sources said officials in Moscow were discussing when to send Galuzin’s successor to Tokyo.

There was speculation Galuzin is leaving his post due to the negative turn in bilateral relations triggered by the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin also incited intense criticism in Japan when he indicated his nation was prepared to use nuclear weapons if the West directly intervened on Ukraine’s behalf.

Fluent in Japanese, Galuzin took up the ambassadorial post in January 2018.

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