Russia detains Japanese journalist in spy case, media say

Russian state media reported Tuesday that Russia's FSB security service arrested a Japanese journalist on espionage charges and accused him of gathering information about defensive capabilities on Sakhalin in Russia's Far East.

TASS and RIA Novosti reported that the FSB said it had opened a criminal case against the Japanese national, a reporter with the Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper, and placed him in pre-trial detention.

The FSB published a video showing masked officers storming a hotel room, pushing a man to the floor and handcuffing him. The journalist was flown to Moscow, where a court ordered him held in pre-trial detention, according to the supplied account. The FSB did not say when the arrest or court hearing occurred.

The charges carry up to 20 years in prison.

Moscow and Tokyo have long disputed the status of islands in the Pacific Ocean off northeast Japan and southwest of Russia's Sakhalin region. The Kuril Islands, called the Northern Territories in Japan, have been under Russian control since the end of World War II.