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The main security service said it had detained a reporter for the Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper in Russia’s far east, where he had been reporting on military recruitment.
Russia has detained a Japanese journalist for suspected espionage, the country’s main security agency said on Tuesday, alleging that the journalist had been collecting intelligence on the country’s military capabilities.
The agency, the Federal Security Service, said in a statement that the journalist, working for the Japanese newspaper Hokkaido Shimbun, was arrested in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, on the Pacific island of Sakhalin in Russia’s far east. It said the journalist, whom it did not name, had been transported to Moscow, where he was remanded into pretrial custody by the Lefortovo District Court.
“As a result of operational investigative measures, it was established that he was collecting and storing information related to the country’s defense capability, with the aim of transmitting it on instructions from national intelligence for use against the security of the Russian Federation,” the statement said.
The journalist was collecting data on the number of local recruits taking part in the war in Ukraine, the F.S.B. told the Russian news agency Tass.
The Japanese Embassy in Moscow and the country’s consulate in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk did not respond to a request for comment.
Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, identified the detained journalist as Yuki Imai.
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