Russia has detained a Swedish national on terrorism-related charges and a Japanese journalist on suspicion of espionage, raising fresh concerns about the treatment of foreign citizens as potential bargaining chips in future prisoner exchanges. The arrests came days after former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev called for Moscow to increase its pool of Western nationals available for negotiations to secure the return of Russians held abroad.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on Wednesday that the Swedish citizen had been arrested in the Sebezh district of the Pskov region, close to the borders with Belarus and Latvia. The agency accused him of entering Russia under the pretext of joining the Russian military while allegedly planning sabotage and terrorist attacks against military facilities.
According to the FSB, the man served as commander of a drone unit in the 24th separate assault battalion of Ukraine’s Aidar formation between February and June. The volunteer unit emerged during the conflict that began in 2014, and Russia has designated it a terrorist organisation under its domestic law.
The FSB said the detainee had admitted to serving in the unit and claimed to possess documents confirming his participation in combat against Russian forces. He faces charges of illegally crossing the border, organising the activities of a terrorist organisation and serving as a mercenary. Russian authorities have not disclosed his name, and the allegations have not been independently verified. Sweden’s government had not commented at the time of the report.
The Swedish national’s arrest followed the detention of Yuki Imai, a journalist working for Japan’s Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper, on Sakhalin Island. The FSB said Imai was arrested as he prepared to leave Russia and accused him of collecting information about the country’s defence capabilities on behalf of Japanese intelligence services.
Japan responded by summoning Russian ambassador Nikolai Nozdrev in Tokyo on Wednesday. Kimitake Nakamura, head of the Japanese foreign ministry’s European affairs department, lodged a formal protest over the arrest and criticised Moscow for announcing it without first notifying the Japanese government.
Tokyo has requested consular access to Imai and assurances that he will receive humane treatment. The Committee to Protect Journalists also called for his immediate release, warning that journalists should not be used as bargaining chips in wider geopolitical disputes. The organisation estimates that at least 30 journalists are being held in Russia in connection with their work.
The arrests have drawn additional attention because of Medvedev’s remarks on Telegram on October 9. Writing after the arrest in Montenegro of Mikhail Zvinchuk, a Kremlin-aligned military commentator and founder of the Rybar Telegram channel, Medvedev suggested Russia might need to detain more Western citizens to secure the release of Russians held overseas. Zvinchuk has since returned to Russia.
“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,” Medvedev wrote. He added: “There is no other way: if you live with wolves, you have to howl like a wolf.”
Medvedev, who served as Russia’s president from 2008 to 2012 and later became prime minister, is now deputy chairman of the country’s Security Council. His comments have renewed scrutiny of Moscow’s use of foreign detainees in negotiations with Western governments. However, no evidence presented in the reported arrests establishes that either the Swedish national or Imai was detained specifically for a future exchange.
Russia has detained foreign nationals on espionage, drug-related and other charges for years. Critics have described some cases as hostage-taking through the criminal justice system, particularly when detainees are later exchanged for Russians imprisoned abroad. Russian authorities generally present such cases as legitimate law enforcement or national security matters.
The most recent major multinational prisoner exchange took place in August 2024, when 26 people were released. Russia freed 16 detainees, while Western countries returned 10 people to Russia.
Among those released by Moscow were Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan. Both had been sentenced to 16 years in a high-security prison on espionage charges, which they denied.
Germany also secured the release of Rico Krieger, who had been sentenced to death in Belarus, and Patrick Schabel, who had been detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport over cannabis-infused gummy sweets.
In return, Russia received several people held in Western countries. They included Vadim Krasikov, who was serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 assassination of Georgian national Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in a Berlin park. Others included Artem and Anna Dulcev, accused of spying in Slovenia while posing as South American art dealers, and Pablo Gonzalez, also known as Pavel Rubtsov, a Russian-born Spanish journalist held in Poland on espionage charges since February 2022.
The 2024 exchange demonstrated how detainees held in different countries can become part of complex negotiations involving intelligence services, diplomats and political leaders. Medvedev’s latest comments, followed by the arrests in Russia, have intensified questions about whether additional foreign nationals could become part of similar negotiations, although the circumstances and legal proceedings in the Swedish and Japanese cases remain distinct.
