Russia detains Japanese journalist on suspicion of spying

Russia's ‌FSB ​security agency said on Tuesday it had detained a Japanese journalist for alleged espionage, and Moscow's Foreign Ministry said it regretted that Tokyo was using correspondents to carry out spying.

In a statement on its website, the FSB said the Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper journalist was detained in the far eastern Sakhalin region on the day before ‌he planned to leave Russia. It did not specify when this was. Russia and Japan, which never signed a formal World War Two peace treaty, have seen their diplomatic relations deteriorate since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, though Japan relies on Russia for supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

In a statement, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova identified the journalist as Imai Yuki, according to the Russian transliteration of his name, and said his detention cast ‌a new pall on relations with Tokyo. Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said on Wednesday that Japan's embassy in Moscow and consulate-general in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk had asked Russian authorities for information and called for fair treatment ‌and humanitarian consideration for the Japanese national. Motegi did not confirm the identity of the person detained.

The Hokkaido Shimbun said it was still confirming the details. "We will respond with the reporter's safety as our top priority," a spokesperson for the publisher said, declining to comment further.

In a Russian state TV video report on the case, three masked men in black uniforms handcuffed a man lying on the ground as a voice off camera said he was suspected of spying. The video showed the man being accompanied by two FSB servicemen onto ⁠a plane, ​then in a cage in a Moscow court, which ordered ⁠him detained for nearly two months.

The agency "thwarted the illegal activity" of the journalist, the FSB said. "As a result of intelligence operations, it was established that he gathered and stored information related to the country's defence capabilities in order to pass it on for ⁠national intelligence purposes to be used against the security of the Russian Federation," the statement said.

"Tokyo's attempts to use its correspondents in Russia with the status of foreign journalists to gather information for undermining our state's security are regrettable," the foreign ministry ​spokeswoman said. Japan, she said, had adopted an anti-Russian position during Russia's military campaign in Ukraine and refused to consider Moscow's concerns about Tokyo's "remilitarisation".

"We have to note that what has occurred will become ⁠an additional factor clouding the atmosphere of Russian-Japanese relations," Zakharova said. LONG-RUNNING DISPUTES

Russia regards Japan as an "unfriendly" country because it joined Western sanctions against Moscow over the war in Ukraine. Russia and Japan have a territorial dispute over the Kuril Islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories.

Russian ⁠President ​Vladimir Putin visited one of the disputed islands in August, causing uproar in Japan. A delegation from China's Heilongjiang province also visited the island on Tuesday, amid strained relations between Beijing and Tokyo. Japan has said it would continue implementing sanctions against Russia and supporting Ukraine. This month, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's Cabinet approved additional sanctions against Russia, including expanded export bans and asset freezes targeting individuals affiliated with the Russian military.

Asked whether ⁠improving US-Russia relations and Japan's reliance on energy imports from Russia made it difficult for Tokyo to take countermeasures, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said: "It is true that there are many issues between Japan and Russia. "From ⁠Japan's perspective, despite the difficult situation in Japan-Russia relations, Japan ⁠has taken resolute measures based on its position. At the same time, Russia is a neighbouring country to Japan, and communication is necessary to resolve these issues."

One of the most prominent cases of a foreign journalist arrested in Russia was the detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in 2023. He was found guilty ‌of espionage by a Russian court, sentenced ‌to 16 years and then freed in an East-West prisoner swap in August 2024.