Yuki Imai

Japanese journalist Yuki Imai has been arrested by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) on spying charges, prompting condemnation from Tokyo and raising fears over the deteriorating state of bilateral relations. Imai, a 34-year-old correspondent for the Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper, was detained on October 14 in the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Sakhalin Island. Russian authorities transferred him to Lefortovo Prison in Moscow, where a court ordered him held in pre-trial detention until at least December 12. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.