Tokyo, Oct. 15 (Jiji Press)–Russia’s detention of a Japanese reporter in Sakhalin in the country’s Far East came amid tensions between the two countries that heightened following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The news came on Tuesday when Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, said that a reporter for the Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper in northern Japan was detained on suspicion of espionage. There are concerns that the detention of the male reporter assigned to the newspaper’s bureau in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk may be prolonged. Relations between the two countries deteriorated sharply after Tokyo imposed sanctions on Russia over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Russia designated Japan as an “unfriendly nation.” In August this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin made his first trip to one of the four Russian-controlled northwestern Pacific islands claimed by Japan. Russia has also ramped up its rhetoric against Japan, raising views that Moscow no longer gives consideration to Tokyo’s position. The detention of the Hokkaido Shimbun reporter appears to be a fresh warning to Japan. The FSB claims that the reporter, acting on the instructions of Japan’s national intelligence service, collected and stored information about mobilized and volunteer participants in a special military operation, according to Tass, Russia’s state news agency. The Russian agency also released video footage showing investigators handcuffing the reporter in a hotel room. Among Japanese journalists, a reporter for Kyodo News was detained in Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East in December 2019 on suspicion of attempting to obtain military secrets, but was released hours later. In another espionage case involving a journalist, Russia detained Evan Gershkovich, an American reporter for The Wall Street Journal, in March 2023. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison before being released in a prisoner swap in August 2024. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
