Scholz Denounces Russian Repression on 2nd Anniversary of Navalny Poisoning

In this image provided by the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service, opposition leader Alexei Navalny appears on a video screen set up at Moscow City Court, on May 24, 2022. (Russian Federal Penitentiary Service via AP)
In this image provided by the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service, opposition leader Alexei Navalny appears on a video screen set up at Moscow City Court, on May 24, 2022. (Russian Federal Penitentiary Service via AP)
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Scholz Denounces Russian Repression on 2nd Anniversary of Navalny Poisoning

In this image provided by the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service, opposition leader Alexei Navalny appears on a video screen set up at Moscow City Court, on May 24, 2022. (Russian Federal Penitentiary Service via AP)
In this image provided by the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service, opposition leader Alexei Navalny appears on a video screen set up at Moscow City Court, on May 24, 2022. (Russian Federal Penitentiary Service via AP)

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has praised jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny on the second anniversary of his attempted poisoning and denounced Russia's clampdown on freedom of speech.

In a video message on Saturday, Scholz said he had spoken with Navalny while he was recovering in hospital in Berlin and found him to be a brave man who wanted to return to Russia to fight for democracy, freedom and the rule of law.

On his return, however, Navalny - President Vladimir Putin's most vocal critic inside Russia - was immediately imprisoned.

"The war that Russia started against Ukraine is a war that also has consequences for Russia," Scholz said. "Freedom and democracy were already endangered before. But now, freedom of expression is much more endangered and many fear to say their own opinion."

That was why it was so important to remember Navalny, Scholz added, since he was fighting for his belief that "one lives best in a democracy and state governed by the rule of law".

Navalny is serving an 11-1/2-year sentence after being found guilty of parole violations and fraud and contempt of court charges. He says all the charges were fabricated as a pretext to jail him and thwart his political ambitions.

The 46-year-old returned to Russia in 2021 from Germany where he had been treated for what Western laboratory tests showed was an attempt to poison him in Siberia with a Soviet-era nerve agent. Russia denies trying to kill him.



Iran Is ‘Pressing the Gas Pedal’ on Uranium Enrichment, IAEA Chief Says 

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)
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Iran Is ‘Pressing the Gas Pedal’ on Uranium Enrichment, IAEA Chief Says 

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)

Iran is "pressing the gas pedal" on its enrichment of uranium to near weapons grade, UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday, adding that Iran's recently announced acceleration in enrichment was starting to take effect.

Grossi said last month that Iran had informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that it would "dramatically" accelerate enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, closer to the roughly 90% of weapons grade.

Western powers called the step a serious escalation and said there was no civil justification for enriching to that level and that no other country had done so without producing nuclear weapons. Iran has said its program is entirely peaceful and it has the right to enrich uranium to any level it wants.

"Before it was (producing) more or less seven kilograms (of uranium enriched to up to 60%) per month, now it's above 30 or more than that. So I think this is a clear indication of an acceleration. They are pressing the gas pedal," Grossi told reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

According to an International Atomic Energy Agency yardstick, about 42 kg of uranium enriched to that level is enough in principle, if enriched further, for one nuclear bomb. Grossi said Iran currently had about 200 kg of uranium enriched to up to 60%.

Still, he said it would take time to install and bring online the extra centrifuges - machines that enrich uranium - but that the acceleration was starting to happen.

"We are going to start seeing steady increases from now," he said.

Grossi has called for diplomacy between Iran and the administration of new US President Donald Trump, who in his first term, pulled the United States out of a nuclear deal between Iran and major powers that had imposed strict limits on Iran's atomic activities. That deal has since unraveled.

"One can gather from the first statements from President Trump and some others in the new administration that there is a disposition, so to speak, to have a conversation and perhaps move into some form of an agreement," he said.

Separately, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at Davos that Iran must make a first step towards improving relations with countries in the region and the United States by making it clear it does not aim to develop nuclear weapons.