Free Republic

Free-trade talks between the United States and the European Union are in danger of being derailed by populist groups opposing everything from globalization to multinationals, EU ministers and business leaders said on Friday. The rise of anti-EU parties, reports of U.S. spying in Europe and accusations that a trade pact would pander to big companies have combined to erode public support for a deal that proponents say would dramatically increase economic growth. "We have an uphill battle to make the argument that this EU-U.S. free-trade agreement is a good one," he said in remarks that were broadcast to reporters.

Poland is leading a call for tough measures against Russia at a Brussels summit, Thursday, as the Crimean parliament votes for a referendum to leave Ukraine. Before an emergency summit on the crisis in Ukraine, Prime Minister Donald Tusk had talks with leaders of the Visegrad Group of countries - Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Poland - on a response to the Ukraine crisis. Tusk also met with President Hollande of France and the UK's PM David Cameron. Poland, alongside other member states from the CEE region and UK and Sweden want a tough response with a promise of sanctions...

<p>The last time a leaked phone call out of Ukraine was released about a month ago ostensibly by the Russian NSA equivalent, one between US assistant sec state Victoria Nuland and the US envoy to the Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, it was revealed that the real puppet masters behind the Maidan movement, and the true instigators of the Ukraine "revolution" were none other than the "developed" world superpowers, lead by the US.</p>

This remarkable statement, in the form of an open letter, has appeared on the website of the Ukrainan Navy’s news website, Flot Ukrainyny; I am passing it on in toto, without comment, it speaks for itself: An address by the command of the Sevastopol brigade of surface ships, and the crews of the Ukrainian Navy ships Slavutych and Ternopil to the international media: We, sailors of the Ukrainian Navy, have listened attentively to the position and thoughts of the president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, which he delivered during a news conference in Moscow on 4 March 2014. Speaking...

Shrewd reporting about the Ukraine crisis comes from The Onion, which declared that American reaction is evenly divided — between the “wholly indifferent” and the “grossly misinformed.” In the latter category, it seems, belong the chest-thumpers who blame the Crimea catastrophe on President Obama. “We have a weak and indecisive president that invites aggression,” scolded Senator Lindsey Graham (revealing his own weakness: grammar). “President Obama needs to do something!” Likewise, Senator John McCain complains that Obama’s foreign policy is “feckless,” so that “nobody believes in America’s strength anymore.” Representative Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, worries that...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday called Russian President Vladimir Putin a "tough guy with a thin skin" and said he is "squandering the potential" of Russia with his aggressive posture in Ukraine. "I know we are dealing with a tough guy with a thin skin," she said during a speech at UCLA, citing her experiences with Putin during her time at the State Department. "I know that his political vision is of a greater Russia," she added. "I said when I was still secretary that his goal is to re-Sovietize Russia’s periphery, but in the process he...

Whether you are paid agents, losertarian isolationis, or just dim wits who wouldn't know what conservatism and freedom are if they kicked you in the backside. Why are still here? The land of vodka and borscht awaits. If you hate this country so much, don't let the door hit you where the good Lord split you. Go join your brothers in mother Russia. I served this country. I love this country despite all its faults. It is the greatest nation that has ever been or ever will be. Despite my disgust with the politicians I would never side with the...

"It is extremely unfortunate that this wiretapping was conducted. It’s not an accident that this conversation was posted (on the Internet) today," Paet said. Earlier, he said that the conversation with Ashton took place last week, immediately after the head of the MFA’s return from Ukraine to Estonia. "My conversation with Ashton took place last week directly after my visit to Ukraine. At that time, I was in Estonia already," he said. The diplomat refrained from more detailed comments until he "sees the recording". Paet says he used the ministry’s mobile phone for talks and has no idea how information...

LONG BEACH >> Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday compared recent actions by Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Ukraine to those implemented by Adolf Hitler in the late 1930s. PutinÂ’s desire to protect minority Russians in Ukraine is reminiscent of HitlerÂ’s actions to protect ethnic Germans outside Germany, she said. Putin has been on a campaign to give Russian passports to anyone who has Russian connections, Clinton said. The Russian leader has recently done so in the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which, Clinton said, is similar to what happened in Nazi Germany in the late 1930s. Hitler...

Vladimir Putin isn’t the Easter Bunny. On the other hand, he isn’t Joseph Stalin. It takes a truly fevered imagination to see Russian forces in the Crimea as a prelude to Russian tanks rolling across Europe toward Berlin and Paris. Putin is a power player who cares more about Russia’s national interests, and Russian minorities in his near abroad, than in that mythical force known as world opinion. Would that America had a president who cared more about our interests than in promoting globalism and the left’s social agenda. The Crimea’s population is 60% ethnic Russian. For most of the...

Simferopol, Ukraine (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry accused Russia of making up reasons for intervention in Ukraine, saying Tuesday that "not a single piece of credible evidence supports any one of these claims." "Russia has talked about Russian-speaking citizens being under siege. They're not," he said while on a visit to Kiev. He condemned what he called Russia's aggression in Crimea and urged the country to withdraw its troops. "We would like to see this de-escalated. We're not looking for some major confrontation," he said, while still promising sanctions on Russia if it refuses to step back....

...Kerry touched down in Kiev today to show American support for the country's newly minted leaders - the same leaders Russian President Vladimir Putin called "definitely not legitimate"...

Russia's Micex stock index fell 11% on Monday and the ruble hit an all-time low after Vladimir Putin's weekend invasion of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula. The sour reaction suggests that investors understand that Mr. Putin's Achilles' heel is the Russian economy and its access to world financial markets, if the West has the wit and will to exploit it. The conventional wisdom in the pundit class is that Russia holds the economic edge because of its natural gas supplies to Ukraine and much of Europe. But that supply is a double-edged sword because Russia needs the foreign-exchange earnings as much as...

According to the New York Times, “The United States and the European Union have embraced the revolution here as anotherflowering of democracy, a blow to authoritarianism and kleptocracy in the former Soviet space.” ( After Initial Triumph, Ukraine’s Leaders Face Battle for Credibility,  NYTimes.com, March 1, 2014, emphasis added)“Flowering Democracy, Revolution”?  The grim realities are otherwise. What is a stake is a US-EU-NATO sponsored coup d’Etat in blatant violation of international law.The forbidden truth is that the West has engineered –through a carefully staged covert operation– the formation of a proxy regime integrated by Neo-Nazis. Confirmed by Assistant Secretary of State...

The West is blinking in disbelief – Vladimir Putin just invaded Ukraine. German diplomats, French Eurocrats and American pundits are all stunned. Why has Russia chosen to gamble its trillion-dollar ties with the West? Western leaders are stunned because they haven’t realized Russia’s owners no longer respect Europeans the way they once did after the Cold War. Russia thinks the West is no longer a crusading alliance. Russia thinks the West is now all about the money. Putin’s henchmen know this personally. Russia’s rulers have been buying up Europe for years. They have mansions and luxury flats from London’s West...

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel is reported to have become “really annoyed” about Russian President Vladimir Putin and has questioned whether he “was still in touch with reality.” The German mass circulation Bild newspaper wrote on Monday that during a telephone conversation she held with US President Barack Obama to discuss the growing crisis in Ukraine she complained that Mr Putin was “living in another world.” “She appears to have become really annoyed,” Bild remarked. The paper said it had gained inside information on the telephone exchange between the US and German leaders from American sources. The two leaders roundly criticised...

The self-defense forces guarding the borders of the Ukrainian autonomous republic of Crimea have prevented a large amount of firearms and explosives from being smuggled into the republic by Kiev radicals. The Cossacks and Berkut troops at the road checkpoint in the Crimean peninsula have confiscated explosives equivalent to 400 kilograms of TNT as well as grenades, rifles and guns, Russia-1 TV channel reports. The blasting agent was transported in a single batch by a truck, with the self-defense forces currently investigating the origins and the purpose of the load. The driver and the passenger of the truck were Maidan...

Russia's Black Sea Fleet has told Ukrainian forces in Crimea to surrender by 5.am (0300 GMT) on Tuesday or face a military assault, Interfax news agency quoted a source in the Ukrainian Defence Ministry as saying. The ultimatum, Interfax said, was issued by Alexander Vitko, the fleet's commander.

Ukraine: Russia Delivers 'Assault Storm' Deadline 3:23pm UK, Monday 03 March 2014 Russia's fleet has given Ukrainian forces in Crimea until 3am to surrender or face a military assault, according to Interfax. The ultimatum, from the commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet Alexander Vitko, has a base in Crimea where Russian forces are now in control. According to the agency, it reads: "If they do not surrender before 5am (3am GMT) tomorrow, a real assault will be started against units and divisions of the armed forces across Crimea." It comes as Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev discussed the situation in...

The Ukrainian crisis is a “peripheral” issue for the EU and an “optional” conflict for the US, while for the Russian speaking population of Ukraine it is an existential threat, international affairs writer Srdja Trifkovic told RT. RT: The Russian President has asked Parliament for permission to use a limited army contingent to stabilise the situation in Crimea – how could that change the situation on the ground? Srdja Trifkovic: In my personal opinion the Ukraine is getting closer to disintegration or at least a form of federalization to which the Russians can make a stabilizing contribution. Because any attempt...