Russia detained a Swedish national and a Japanese journalist within days of one another as former president Dmitry Medvedev called on Moscow to replenish its "exchange pool" of Western citizens to trade for Russians held abroad. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Wednesday it arrested the Swedish citizen in the Sebezh district of Pskov region, near the borders with Belarus and Latvia. He is accused of entering Russia under cover of joining the Russian military while intending to carry out "sabotage and terrorist attacks" on military sites.
The FSB said it established that from February to June the detainee served as commander of a drone section in the 24th separate assault battalion of Ukraine's Aidar unit — a volunteer formation that emerged during Russia's initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014 which the Kremlin has designated a "terrorist organisation," a common domestic classification aimed at Ukrainian units. He had allegedly admitted to serving in the unit. The FSB said it holds documents confirming his participation in combat against Russian forces, and that he faces charges of illegal border crossing, organising the activities of a terrorist organisation and serving as a mercenary.
His name has not been disclosed. Sweden's government has not commented. Moscow's claims could not be independently verified.
The second arrest — that of Yuki Imai, a journalist for Japan's Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper — took place on Sakhalin Island as he was preparing to leave the country, the FSB said. He is accused of gathering information on Russia's defence capabilities at the direction of Japanese intelligence services. Japan summoned Russia's ambassador in Tokyo Nikolai Nozdrev on Wednesday.
Kimitake Nakamura, head of the foreign ministry's European affairs department, lodged a protest both over the arrest and Moscow's decision to announce it without first informing the Japanese government. Tokyo has demanded consular access to Imai and assurances of humane treatment. The Committee to Protect Journalists called for his immediate release, warning that journalists "must not be used as a bargaining chip in broader geopolitical disputes." The organisation estimates that at least 30 journalists are currently held in Russia in connection with their work.
The arrests followed Medvedev's post on Telegram on 9 October calling for Russia to increase its "exchange pool" of foreign nationals it uses to negotiate the release of its citizens deemed useful to the regime. Writing after the arrest in Montenegro of Mikhail Zvinchuk, a Kremlin propagandist and founder of Rybar — a Telegram channel close to Russia's military and security services — Medvedev said Moscow might need to detain more Western nationals to secure the release of Russians held abroad. "Now, quite likely, we will have to fill up the exchange pool with European and American idiots in order to pull our own people out," he wrote.
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