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Swedish PM Demands Immediate Release of EU Employee Jailed in Iran

Swedish EU employee Johan Floderus attends a court session in Tehran, Iran, December 10, 2023. Amir-abbas Ghasemi/MIZAN/WANA (West Asia News Agency) Handout via REUTERS Acquire Licensing Rights
Swedish EU employee Johan Floderus attends a court session in Tehran, Iran, December 10, 2023. Amir-abbas Ghasemi/MIZAN/WANA (West Asia News Agency) Handout via REUTERS Acquire Licensing Rights
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Swedish PM Demands Immediate Release of EU Employee Jailed in Iran

Swedish EU employee Johan Floderus attends a court session in Tehran, Iran, December 10, 2023. Amir-abbas Ghasemi/MIZAN/WANA (West Asia News Agency) Handout via REUTERS Acquire Licensing Rights
Swedish EU employee Johan Floderus attends a court session in Tehran, Iran, December 10, 2023. Amir-abbas Ghasemi/MIZAN/WANA (West Asia News Agency) Handout via REUTERS Acquire Licensing Rights

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Monday demanded the immediate release of Swedish European Union employee Johan Floderus from prison in Iran.

Floderus was arrested in Iran in 2022. Iran said on Sunday it had begun a trial of the Swedish national, having charged him with spying for Israel and "corruption on earth," a crime that carries the death penalty.

"He is entirely arbitrarily detained," Kristersson told a press conference. "We demand his immediate release."

Relations between Sweden and Iran have been tense since 2019, when Sweden arrested a former Iranian official, Hamid Noury, on suspicion of torture and executions of political prisoners in Iran in the 1980s, Reuters reported.

A Swedish district court in 2022 found Noury guilty of the charges. Noury appealed the case, and an appeals court ruling is expected next week.

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Putin: Russia to Resume Production of Nuclear-capable Intermediate Range Missiles

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting with graduates of Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration via videoconference at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, Friday, June 28, 2024. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting with graduates of Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration via videoconference at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, Friday, June 28, 2024. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
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Putin: Russia to Resume Production of Nuclear-capable Intermediate Range Missiles

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting with graduates of Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration via videoconference at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, Friday, June 28, 2024. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting with graduates of Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration via videoconference at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, Friday, June 28, 2024. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia would resume production of short and medium range nuclear-capable land-based missiles due to what he said were moves by the United States to deploy them in both Europe and Asia.
The United States formally withdrew from the landmark 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia in 2019 after saying that Moscow was violating the accord, an accusation the Kremlin denied.
Russia then imposed a moratorium on its own development of missiles previously banned by the INF treaty.
"It is known that the United States not only produces these missile systems, but has already brought them to Europe for exercises in Denmark," Putin told a meeting of Russia's Security Council.
"It was recently announced that they are in the Philippines. It is not known whether they took the missiles out of there or not."
Putin said that Russia was thus forced to respond.
"Apparently, we need to start manufacturing these strike systems and then, based on the actual situation, make decisions about where – if necessary to ensure our safety – to place them," Putin said.

Putin said earlier this month he could deploy conventional missiles within striking distance of the United States and its European allies if they allowed Ukraine to strike deeper into Russia with long-range Western weapons.