Russia announces it has arrested a senior Japanese diplomat for "espionage"
"A Japanese diplomat was arrested in flagrante delicto while receiving confidential information in exchange for compensation,” the FSB said in a statement quoted by Russian agencies.
Japan demanded an “official apology” from Russia on Tuesday September 27 after the arrest and ill-treatment inflicted, according to it, on its consul general in Vladivostok (Far East), who was accused of espionage.
Russian-Japanese relations have deteriorated since April when Japan considered, for the first time since 2003, that the Kuril Islands, in the north of the archipelago, were "illegally occupied" by Russia, a territorial dispute which prevents the signing of a peace treaty between the two countries since the end of the Second World War.
