Russia detains Japanese journalist on suspicion of spying

Maxim Shemetov/Reuters

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 defense 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 “remilitarization.”

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

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.

Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik/AP

Japan condemns Putin’s visit to disputed islands

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 neighboring 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.

马克西姆·舍梅托夫/路透社

俄罗斯联邦安全局周二表示，已拘留一名日本记者，指控其从事间谍活动。莫斯科外交部表示，对东京利用记者进行间谍活动表示遗憾。

俄罗斯联邦安全局在其网站上发表声明称，《北海道新闻》记者在计划离开俄罗斯的前一天，于远东萨哈林地区被拘留。声明没有具体说明拘留时间。

俄罗斯和日本从未签署正式的二战和平条约，自 2022 年俄罗斯全面入侵乌克兰以来，两国的外交关系不断恶化，尽管日本依赖俄罗斯供应液化天然气 (LNG)。

俄罗斯外交部发言人玛丽亚·扎哈罗娃在一份声明中确认，这名记者名叫今井由纪（Imai Yuki），这是他名字的俄语音译。她表示，他的被捕给俄日关系蒙上了新的阴影。

日本外相茂木敏充周三表示，日本驻莫斯科大使馆和驻南萨哈林斯克总领事馆已向俄罗斯当局询问相关信息，并呼吁对这名日本公民给予公平待遇和人道主义考虑。茂木敏充没有透露被拘留者的身份。

《北海道新闻》表示，仍在核实细节。

“我们将把记者的安全放在首位，”出版商发言人表示，并拒绝进一步置评。

在俄罗斯国家电视台对该案件的一段视频报道中，三名蒙面黑衣男子给一名躺在地上的男子戴上手铐，镜头外传来一个声音说，他涉嫌从事间谍活动。

视频显示，这名男子在两名俄罗斯联邦安全局特工的陪同下登上了一架飞机，然后被关进莫斯科一家法院的笼子里，法院下令将其拘留近两个月。

俄罗斯联邦安全局表示，该机构“挫败了这名记者的非法活动”。

声明称：“情报行动证实，他收集并储存了与国家国防能力相关的信息，以便将其传递给国家情报部门，用于危害俄罗斯联邦的安全。”

外交部发言人表示：“东京企图利用其在俄罗斯的、具有外国记者身份的记者收集信息，以破坏我国国家安全，这种做法令人遗憾。”

她表示，日本在俄罗斯对乌克兰的军事行动中采取了反俄立场，并且拒绝考虑莫斯科对东京“重新军事化”的担忧。

扎哈罗娃说：“我们必须注意到，所发生的事情将成为给俄日关系蒙上阴影的另一个因素。”

俄罗斯视日本为“不友好”国家，因为日本加入了西方因乌克兰战争而对莫斯科实施的制裁。

俄罗斯和日本对千岛群岛（在日本被称为北方四岛）存在领土争端。

俄罗斯总统普京8月访问了其中一个争议岛屿，在日本引起轩然大波。周二，中国黑龙江省代表团也访问了该岛，此时北京和东京的关系正处于紧张状态。

日本已表示将继续对俄罗斯实施制裁并支持乌克兰。本月，日本首相高市早苗内阁批准了对俄罗斯的额外制裁措施，包括扩大出口禁令以及冻结与俄罗斯军方有关联的个人的资产。

加夫里尔·格里戈罗夫/卫星通讯社/美联社

日本谴责普京访问争议岛屿

当被问及美俄关系改善以及日本对俄罗斯能源进口的依赖是否使东京难以采取反制措施时，内阁官房长官木原实表示：“日本和俄罗斯之间确实存在许多问题。”

“从日本的角度来看，尽管日俄关系形势严峻，但日本已根据自身立场采取了坚决措施。同时，俄罗斯是日本的邻国，双方需要沟通来解决这些问题。”

俄罗斯逮捕外国记者最引人注目的案例之一是《华尔街日报》记者埃文·格什科维奇于 2023 年被拘留。

他被俄罗斯法院判处间谍罪，判处 16 年监禁，然后在 2024 年 8 月的东西方囚犯交换中获释。