MOSCOW: Russia accused Japan on Wednesday of widespread use of journalists for espionage, following the arrest last week of a Japanese reporter on spying charges.
Russian authorities said last week that Japanese journalist Yuki Imai had been arrested on the Far Eastern island of Sakhalin, near a disputed group of islands, on accusations of “conducting espionage activities on Russian territory”.
Japan denies the allegations and has so far been unable to secure Imai’s release.
Asked about the case, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters on Wednesday that it was not the first such case, but only “the first that we have made public”.
“Journalists who come from Japan are not engaged in journalism,” she alleged.
The “dozens” of Japanese journalists accredited to work in Russia, she said, showed no interest in covering the country as journalists.
“They were ordered not to get in touch, not to ask questions, not to participate in information events through Russian state bodies, in particular the Foreign Ministry,” she alleged.
“So what do such large numbers of Japanese journalists do in our country?” she asked.
“They are engaged in activities that are incompatible with journalistic status.”
Zakharova’s comments came as Japan’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that it had sent the country’s top diplomat for Europe, Kimitake Nakamura, to Moscow to discuss Imai’s release.
“We lodged a request… calling for the earliest possible realisation of consular access to the Japanese national detained in Russia, as well as the individual’s immediate release,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told a media briefing on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has denied that Japan conducts espionage in Russia, while Imai’s newspaper, Hokkaido Shimbun, has stressed its independence from the government.
Tokyo has also summoned Russian Ambassador Nikolay Nozdrev to lodge a protest, while the Foreign Ministry has urged Moscow to ensure he receives “fair and impartial treatment”.
The two countries have been locked in a decades-old dispute over the status of a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean, off Japan’s northeastern coast and southwest of Sakhalin.
Japan has also imposed sanctions on Russia over its aggression in Ukraine.
Russia has arrested several citizens of countries it describes as “unfriendly” in recent years, accusing them of working for Western intelligence services.