Eight Russian officials have left Japan following Tokyo's decision to expel them on April 8. It is rare for Japan to expel multiple foreign officials.
The move was made to put more pressure on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
The officials, and their families, traveled from the Russian embassy to Tokyo's Haneda airport this morning. Their flight took off shortly after noon, local time.
Sources say some of the eight people are believed to work for the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate, known as GRU, or the Foreign Intelligence Service, known as SVR.
They say some of them have been identified by police authorities as persons of interest.
They were allegedly involved in espionage activities, while assigned to Russian diplomatic and trade offices in Japan.
Source: ANNnewsCH
