A man holds a Russian flag with the letter Z, which has become a symbol of support for Russian military action in Ukraine, during the Victory Day celebrations in the far eastern city of Vladivostok on May 9, 2022.
PAVEL KOROLYOV/AFP via Getty Images
Russia said it detained a Japanese diplomat in the city of Vladivostok.
Russia’s FSB said the official was detained on suspicion of espionage.
Tokyo said it the official was mistreated, in violation of international rules.
Japan accused Russia of violating international rules by blindfolding and restraining a Japanese diplomat that it accused of being a spy.
Russia’s domestic security agency, the FSB, said on Monday that it arrested a Japanese consul in the eastern city of Vladivostok on suspicion of spying.
The FSB said it arrested the official, Motoki Tatsunori, after catching him “red handed” being given secret information on the effect of western sanctions in the east of Russia, Reuters reported.
It said the intelligence was bought by Tatsunori, who also received information on Russia’s relations with an unnamed country in the Asia-Pacific region.
But Tokyo rejected the accusations, and said that it was lodging a formal complaint about Tatsunori’s treatment, which it said violated international rules on diplomatic relations.
“The official was blindfolded, with pressure applied to both his hands and head so he was unable to move while being detained, and then he was questioned in an overbearing way,” chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters, according to The Japan Times.
Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said it was a “clear violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.”
The convention says that the countries hosting consuls — Russia, in this case, — should treat them “with due respect and shall take all appropriate steps to prevent any attack on their person, freedom or dignity.” Russia has ratified the convention.
Tatsunori was released on Tuesday, Japan’s government said.
Matsuno said Japan would demand a formal apology from Moscow, and the official would leave Russia by Wednesday, having been expelled by Russian authorities.
Russia and Japan are regional rivals, and relations have worsened since Japan took the side of the US and other western nations in condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine and imposing economic sanctions.