Japan Envoy to Russia Urges Immediate Release of Detained Reporter

Tokyo, Oct. 27 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Ambassador to Russia Akira Muto on Tuesday called for the immediate release of a Japanese journalist detained by Russian authorities on suspicion of espionage, the Japanese Embassy in Moscow has revealed.

The request was made during a meeting held at the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow between Muto and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko. The talks were held upon a proposal by the Japanese side, according to the embassy.

The embassy said that the two sides agreed to maintain communications from the viewpoint of appropriately managing bilateral relations.

Meanwhile, the Russian ministry said that Rudenko stated his views on various issues between the two nations, claiming that Japan needed to abandon a hostile policy against Moscow for the two sides to resume dialogue.

On Monday, the embassy held its first consular meeting with the reporter for the Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper's Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk bureau in the Sakhalin region in Russia's Far East since he was detained on Oct. 13. He is being held at a detention center in eastern Moscow.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]