Russia arrests Swedish citizen in Pskov region

Russia's Federal Security Service said on Wednesday it had arrested a Swedish citizen in the Sebezh district of the Pskov region, near the borders with Belarus and Latvia. The man is accused of entering Russia under cover of joining the Russian military while intending to carry out sabotage and terrorist attacks on military sites. His name has not been disclosed, Sweden's government has not commented, and Moscow's claims could not be independently verified.

According to the FSB, the Swede served from February to June as commander of a drone section in the 24th separate assault battalion of Ukraine's Aidar unit, a volunteer formation that emerged during Russia's initial 2014 invasion and that the Kremlin has designated a terrorist organisation, a label Moscow applies routinely to Ukrainian formations. The FSB says he has admitted to the service and that it holds documents confirming his participation in combat against Russian forces. He faces charges of illegal border crossing, organising the activities of a terrorist organisation, and serving as a mercenary.

The detention came six days after former president Dmitry Medvedev wrote on Telegram that Russia should increase its "exchange pool" of foreign nationals, a post published after Montenegro arrested Mikhail Zvinchuk, founder of the Rybar channel, described as a Kremlin propagandist. "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. Zvinchuk has since been returned to Russia.

Within days of that post, the FSB also arrested Yuki Imai, a journalist for Japan's Hokkaido Shimbun, on Sakhalin Island on espionage charges, detaining him as he prepared to leave the country. Tokyo summoned Russia's ambassador and protested both the arrest and Moscow's decision to announce it without informing the Japanese government first. The Committee to Protect Journalists, which counts at least 30 journalists held in Russia over their work, demanded Imai's release and warned that journalists "must not be used as a bargaining chip in broader geopolitical disputes".

The largest recent exchange, in August 2024, freed 26 people: Russia released 16 detainees, Western countries handed back 10, and among those freed was Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who had been sentenced to 16 years for espionage. Medvedev closed his post with a Russian proverb: if you live with wolves, you have to howl like a wolf.