MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s top domestic security agency said Tuesday it has arrested a Japanese journalist suspected of spying on Sakhalin Island.
The Federal Security Service, the main KGB successor agency, said that the Japanese man who worked for the Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper was suspected of gathering information related to Russia’s defense capability on behalf of a Japanese intelligence agency.
It said the suspect, whom it didn’t name, was arrested in the Sakhalin region as he was preparing to leave Russia. It said the suspect has been flown to Moscow and put in custody.
The arrest comes amid a spike in tensions between Russia and Japan following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s August trip to the Kuril Islands, the Moscow-controlled Pacific archipelago that is claimed by both countries.
