Listen to the news

Japan today demanded an official apology from Russia after the arrest and ill-treatment, which according to Tokyo, the Japanese consul general in Vladivostok was subjected to, accused of espionage, reported France Press, quoted by BTA.

Russian security services said yesterday that they had detained Tatsunori Motoki "at the scene of the crime" while receiving, in exchange for compensation, "confidential information on cooperation" between Moscow and an unspecified Asian country.

The Japanese diplomat was declared persona non grata and ordered to leave Russia within 48 hours.

Japanese government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno strongly denied the espionage allegations and said the Russian ambassador in Tokyo had been summoned to the Foreign Ministry over its treatment of the diplomat, which he said violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

"The official's eyes were blindfolded, and his two hands and head were pinned to the ground so that he could not move while he was in custody, and then he was interrogated in an authoritarian manner," Matsuno said, as expressed his categorical protest against "these incredible actions".

Russian counterintelligence detains Japanese consul in the Far East for espionage

The Japanese diplomat has already been released and will leave Russia by tomorrow, Matsuno added.

According to Russian security services, Motoki wanted to arrange meetings with informants and then pay them to obtain information about "cooperation" between Moscow and "one of the countries of the Asia-Pacific region".

The Japanese diplomat also tried to gather confidential information about "the impact of Western sanctions on the economic situation" in Russia's Vladivostok region, located near Japan.

In response to economic sanctions imposed on Moscow over its offensive in Ukraine, in early May Russia barred more than sixty Japanese representatives, including Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, from entering its territory.

Russian-Japanese relations have soured since April, when Japan said, for the first time since 2003, that the Kuril Islands, in the northern part of the archipelago, were "illegally occupied" by Russia.

The existing territorial dispute has prevented the signing of a peace treaty between the two countries since the end of World War II.

Japan

espionage

a diplomat