Russia detains Swedish citizen as Moscow eyes future prisoner swaps

Russia detained a Swedish national and a Japanese journalist within days of one another as former president Dmitry Medvedev called on Moscow to replenish its "exchange pool" of Western citizens to trade for Russians held abroad.

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Wednesday it arrested the Swedish citizen in the Sebezh district of Pskov region, near the borders with Belarus and Latvia.

He is accused of entering Russia under cover of joining the Russian military while intending to carry out "sabotage and terrorist attacks" on military sites.

The FSB said it established that from February to June the detainee served 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 invasion of Ukraine in 2014 which the Kremlin has designated a "terrorist organisation," a common domestic classification aimed at Ukrainian units.