TOKYO: Russia’s Federal Security Service said Monday that it has detained a Japanese consul in Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East on suspicion of obtaining information illegally in exchange for money.

The consul has been declared a “persona non grata.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry said it summoned a senior official of the Japanese Embassy in Moscow to protest against the consul’s alleged improper acquisition of information and ordered the consul to leave the country within 48 hours.

The consul has already been released, a Japanese government official said Tuesday.

The Japanese Embassy in Moscow lodged a protest to the Russian Foreign Ministry over the detention of the Japanese consul. In a statement, the embassy claimed that the detention amounts to a clear violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which stipulates the inviolability of diplomats, saying that the act was extremely regrettable and can never be accepted.

In a press conference in Tokyo on Tuesday, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said there is no problem with the consul’s health.

“From the perspective of putting safety first, we are making arrangements to allow the consul to return to Japan as soon as possible,” Matsuno said, adding that the Japanese government hopes to have the consul leave Russia by Wednesday.

Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Takeo Mori summoned Russian Ambassador to Japan Mikhail Galuzin to the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo on Tuesday morning and made a protest against the Japanese consul’s detention.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said the detention is “totally unacceptable.” He said the consul was taken away blindfolded and bound hand and head before being subjected to high-handed questioning.

Hayashi said it is not true that the consul conducted illegal activities. On Russia’s designation of the consul as a persona non grata, the Japanese foreign minister said, “It’s an unbelievable act and we strongly protest it.”

It is extremely rare for a Japanese diplomat to be detained.

Russia designated Japan as an unfriendly nation as the country, in cooperation with the United States and European countries, has imposed sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

Japan-Russia relations are expected to deteriorate further amid continuing diplomatic rows, including Moscow’s recent scrapping of its agreements with Tokyo on a program allowing mutual visa-free visits by former Japanese residents of northwestern Pacific islands at the center of the two nations’ long-standing territorial dispute and current Russian residents.

Russia’s Federal Security Service claimed that the Japanese consul obtained nonpublic information on Russia’s cooperative ties with an unnamed Asia-Pacific country and also on the effects of Western sanctions on the economic situation in Russia’s Far East by offering money. The unnamed country may be China or North Korea. The Russian agency released secretly shot images of a person who appears to be the consul receiving documents at a restaurant, as well as a video showing the person being questioned.

In April this year, the Russian Foreign Ministry notified Japan of a plan to expel eight Japanese diplomats in Russia in retaliation for Japan’s expulsion of Russian diplomats. The ministry announced an entry ban on 63 Japanese nationals including Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in the following month and on 384 Japanese lawmakers in July that year.

In Vladivostok, a Japanese media reporter was detained in December 2019.

JIJI Press