MOSCOW Moscow warned Saturday it could yet retaliate against Tokyo over an espionage row as a senior Russian naval attache accused of stealing military secrets quit Japan under a cloud, AFP reported.
Captain Victor Bogatenkov, 44, flew out of Tokyo's Narita Airport without speaking to reporters the day after a Japanese naval officer was arrested and charged with passing him military secrets.
Russia charged Friday that the arrest of Lieutenant-Commander Shigehiro Hagisaki was an attempt by forces inside Japan to derail improving ties between the two neighbors.
Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov told Interfax Saturday that Moscow had not yet taken a decision on whether to expel a Japanese diplomat in response.
"We have to act in a very measured way. All the circumstances have to be considered and we must take a balanced decision in the context of Russian-Japanese relations," Interfax quoted Losyukov as saying.
And a senior Foreign Ministry official quoted by ITAR-TASS said Moscow "has not ruled out taking appropriate measures" in response to the Bogatenkov affair.
That is diplomatic code for a tit-for-tat expulsion.
Bogatenkov had in any case been due to leave Japan in a week's time as his tour of duty had ended, the official said. However, the Foreign Ministry refused to say whether the officer had left at the request of Japan.
The scandal erupted Friday when police burst in on a dinner engagement between the Russian diplomat and Japanese Lieutenant-Commander Shigehiro Hagisaki, a member of the maritime self-defense force.
The Japanese officer broke down and confessed to leaking defense secrets to Bogatenkov, according to police.