Free Republic

“We don’t want to do it, but we will, we will do it only in order to protect Ukrainian citizens. We will put their women and children in front of our troops, not behind, but in front and we will be hiding our solders behind them. I dare any Ukrainian commander to give an order to shoot at such crowd.”

Nine Russian soldiers who were participating in military exercises in Canada have been expelled from the country, as Ottawa continues to denounce Russia’s military intervention in Crimea, CTV News has learned. A government source confirmed that the soldiers were informed Thursday afternoon that they had 24 hours to leave Canada. Six of the soldiers were in Saint-Jean, Que., where they were learning English and French. Another two soldiers were participating in a training program at CFB Gagetown, and the ninth soldier was teaching Canadian soldiers Russian in Gatineau, Que.The move comes days after Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that all...

Air-dropping himself into Kiev Tuesday, Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the Russian seizure of Crimea is "not 21st-century, G-8, major-nation behavior." He said Mr. Putin should allow "international observers" to enter Crimea. International observers? This calls to mind Humphrey Bogart's Fred C. Dobbs facing the gang of Mexican bandidos in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre": Dobbs: "If you're the police, where are your badges?" Chief bandido: "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges!" We may assume Mr. Putin would say the masked Russians patrolling Ukrainian Crimea are "international observers." As of this week,...

It is time for the calls for reparations to the descendants of those who were enslaved by colonial powers via the trans-Atlantic slave trade to bear fruit. The European countries and the United States need to compensate for the injustices suffered by slaves and their families. African-Americans and African-Caribbean intellectuals have been agitating for reparations for many years, but the question as to how the compensation would be calculated and in what form is yet to be answered. Since 1999, the African World Reparations and Repatriation Truth Commission called for the West to pay trillions of dollars to Africa. In...

The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release March 06, 2014 Readout of President Obama’s call with President Putin of Russia President Obama spoke for an hour this afternoon with President Putin of Russia. President Obama emphasized that Russia’s actions are in violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, which has led us to take several steps in response, in coordination with our European partners. President Obama indicated that there is a way to resolve the situation diplomatically, which addresses the interests of Russia, the people of Ukraine, and the international community. As a part of that...

A soldier from 32 Engineer Regiment has died in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence confirmed tonight - the first British soldier to die in the country in 2014. The solider, described by his commanding office as a "rising star", died as a result of non-battle related injuries sustained in Camp Bastion. Lieutenant Colonel Steve Davies said: "The tragic death of this committed and professional sapper has hit the Task Force Helmand Engineer Group hard; the Corps has lost a rising star, and his squadron has lost a respected comrade and friend. "At this most difficult time, our thoughts and prayers...

RUSSIA has scuttled a decommisioned vessel in waters off the Crimean town of Myrnyi, effectively blocking access for five Ukrainian Naval ships harboured there. In the early hours of Thursday Russian naval personnel scuttled the decommissioned ship, Ochakov, blockading access for five Ukrainian Naval vessels now trapped inside the Southern Naval Headquarters. Russian war vessels continue to patrol the coast. The move by Russia’s navy comes amid reports that Ukrainian military in Crimea appear to be abandoning their bases. In an extraordinary development to the crisis now politically engulfing most of Europe, the Crimean regional government declared Ukrainian soldiers to...

The U.S. focus on Ukraine has shifted attention away from this week’s remarkable set of exchanges, direct and indirect, between U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that speaks additional volumes about Obama’s take on prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace. That Obama has an unbalanced perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is hardly a new insight. That, from the start, he has pressured Netanyahu to make painful concessions while asking little of Palestinian leaders on the hot-button issues of anti-Israeli hatred and incitement also is well known. But, the timing, manner, tone and content of this week’s Obama-Netanyahu exchanges...

While Vladimir Putin has faced condemnation from the west for his troops' takeover of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, at home the Russian president is enjoying his highest approval ratings in the past two years. Research also appears to confirm solid support for Russian intervention in Ukraine. According to a survey conducted by the state-run pollster VTsIOM on 1-2 March, just as Russian forces were quietly taking control of key infrastructure in Crimea, 67.8% of respondents approved of Putin's job performance. Although the president regularly achieves approval ratings above 60%, this was his highest rating since May 2012. Researchers attributed this latest...

On Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry appeared on CBS’s “Face the Nation” to respond to Russia’s invasion of the Crimea region of Ukraine. “You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext,” Kerry stated. He added, “It’s an incredible act of aggression. It is really a stunning, willful choice by President (Vladimir) Putin to invade another country.” So, what would the United States do about Russian aggression? America would consider dropping its scheduled attendance at the G8 meeting in Sochi, Kerry said: “He is not going to...

Add “vacation-destroyer” to the list of unflattering barbs being hurled at Russian President Vladimir Putin. The ongoing crisis between Ukraine and Russia has placed President Obama’s family vacation plans in jeopardy, according to a new report. Obama and the First Lady were scheduled to head to Miami on Friday for an event focusing on education, Politico reported, and the couple’s daughters were planning to join them afterward for a weekend trip in the area. But, due to the continuing international crisis sparked by Russia’s troops moving into Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, the first family may have to cancel their trip. “The...

<p>Two women: Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton. The first is relentlessly mocked and derided by liberals and the media. The second is still regarded as a paragon of wisdom, despite the fact that her much ballyhooed “reset” of relations with Russia was a total failure, that she misread Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as a "reformer," that she botched health care reform as first lady, and that she blamed her husband's troubles on a "vast right-wing conspiracy."</p>

"Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all the terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival." -Winston Churchill Okay, we'll call it a win-win, even as mainstream media states Putin "blinked," and John Kerry talked about revolution and the global community. President Obama bristled at the idea Putin was tough or won, and that his actions were not "a sign of Russian strength." The fact of the matter is, Russian troops are in control of Crimea, and they didn't have to fire a shot. While it's true, nations should...

Uprising began at the end of November 2013 when president failed to sign European Union Association Agreement. There were few hundred pro-EU protesters on the streets and police moved on them. In a next few days many students and journalists were beaten up and all country learned about police beating peaceful protesters. Thanks God we have freedom of speech in Ukraine which we won 9 years ago at Orange Revolution

Count me among those — a dwindling minority, I’m afraid — who think that politics should end at the water’s edge. No one, Republican or Democrat, ought to take pleasure at the spectacle of America’s foreign policies failing and the perception of America as a hobbled giant. That is, self-evidently, what we’re seeing: Russian boots are on the ground in Ukraine. North Korea is firing missiles. Iran’s negotiators are playing high-stakes poker, while the U.S.-led side doesn’t seem to know a flush from a straight. In Syria, Iran’s proxies confront al Qaeda forces (forces the administration two years ago congratulated...

PepsiCo Inc. has billions of dollars at stake in Russia, its second-largest market by revenue after the U.S. The Purchase, N.Y.-based snack and beverage giant would have a difficult time picking up and leaving: It had $7.89 billion in "long-lived" assets including property, plants and equipment in Russia alone last year, or 15% of its global assets, according to a regulatory filing by the company. The company doesn't disclose its revenue in Ukraine but has subsidiaries in the country and teamed up with a bottling partner in 2007 to acquire Sandora LLC. PepsiCo said at the time that Sandora was...

The Russian invasion of Crimea occurred in a place little known to Americans, for reasons rooted in a tangled and bloody history. The showdown between President Vladimir Putin and the new Ukrainian government is a fight about tangible matters of intense mutual interest. But many Americans can't address international crises without sounding like a Toby Keith song: "I Wanna Talk About Me." If bad things are happening anywhere in the world, it must be something we caused and something we can fix. Listen to John McCain, the Arizona Republican senator whose current mission in life is to confirm the wisdom...

Once Barack Obama warned Putin to stand down in the Crimea, its occupation by Russian troops was assured. As Syria showed the world recently, and the Ukraine shows today, Barack Obama needs to learn how to shut his mouth. Yet, who knew when he said, “there will be costs,” we would be the ones to pay? To paraphrase Lincoln, it is better to shut up and be thought weak than to open your mouth and prove it. Someone should tell Barry. Every time his mouth writes a check his butt won’t cash, he weakens America and makes the world a...

The Obama administration moved Thursday on several fronts to counter Russia's aggression in Ukraine's Crimea, sending fighter jets to allied countries, imposing visa restrictions on Russians and strongly decrying a planned referendum in Crimea to split from Ukraine and join Russia. "We are well beyond the days when borders can be redrawn over the heads of democratic leaders," Obama said Thursday at the White House. Obama was reacting to a vote in Crimea to join Russia -- which is scheduled for a referendum in 10 days. Obama, echoed by the State Department, said this move would "violate the Ukrainian Constitution...

According to the President Milos Zeman what would solve the economic crisis in the Crimea was the federalization of Ukraine and strengthening the autonomy of the peninsula. The head of state on Thursday during a visit to Olomouc Region also said that everything would be much easier if there was not a precedent of Kosovo. "We believe that the solution would be generally the federalization of Ukraine, and in this federalization strengthen the autonomy of Crimea, which already exists because of Crimea has its own parliament and its own government. This crisis would have been far less severe if there...

After World War I, the French built the Maginot Line on Germany’s border to deter and repel any German-army incursion into the homeland. Unfortunately for the French, they prepared for the defensive trench warfare that characterized WWI and were caught flat-footed by the blitzkrieg tactics of the new German army. They were subsequently overrun in a matter of days by the powerful mobile force. At the Air Force Academy, it was drilled into me during Professional Military Studies that historically militaries fight the last war. In other words, they train and equip to fight the last conflict they were involved...

Iran "will investigate how it was exposed, will stop smuggling to Gaza for months" after exposure, source adds. At any given time, Israel's defense establishment is monitoring Iranian arms smuggling and terror-financing networks, a security source revealed on Thursday, a day after the Israel Navy intercepted an Iranian attempt to smuggle powerful rockets to the Gaza Strip on a commercial ship off the coast of Sudan. Currently, IDF Military Intelligence is managing investigations "no less significant" than the Iranian attempt to bring Syrian-made M-302 rockets to Gaza, the source added, describing the covert investigations as part of a far wider...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is raising the stakes in the West's standoff with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He's imposing sanctions against Moscow and rejecting plans for a referendum on the future of Ukraine's Russian-occupied Crimea...

Report says man could also have his nose cut off after blinding girl with acidAn Iranian man should be sentenced to having his eyes gouged out after pouring acid over a young girl's face leaving her blind, an Iranian court has ruled. Opposition group, The National Council of Resistance of Iran, said the man could have his right ear and nose cut off as punishment for attacking the girl with acid, causing her to lose her eyesight and right ear, according to the British Daily Mail. The man was convicted last October of intentionally attacking the girl, it said. The...

We are fast approaching grand-strategy season in Washington. Within the next few weeks, the Obama administration will release both its Quadrennial Defense Review and new updated National Security Strategy. These documents often contain the essential strategic ideas—about goals and priorities, threats and opportunities, resources and constraints—that guide an administration’s statecraft. And because they do, they inevitably provoke debate about that administration’s grand strategy—whether it actually has one, what its major tenets are and what prospects for success it has. They will also invariably provoke comparisons to the grand strategies of administrations past—to the origins and evolution of containment under Harry...

Kiev hopes to get a $2 billion loan from Russia to cover its debt to Gazprom for gas, coup-appointed Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said. Ukraine’s current gas debt stands at $1.5-1.6 billion. Speaking at a briefing on Tuesday, Yatsenyuk said Ukraine is waiting for a “clear response” from Russia on whether it is going to provide the second tranche of the agreed $15 billion loan. Ukraine owes Russia about $2 billion “in debts, racked up by the previous cabinet and the previous president,” he said. “Russia promised to give a loan of $2 billion, intended to cover gas debts that...

South Africa imposed rolling power cuts for the first time since 2008 on Thursday as it struggled to cope with coal shortages and technical problems caused by recent heavy rains. State-owned electricity firm Eskom said incessant downpours over the past week had flooded mines and left stockpiles too wet to use in its coal-fired power plants. . . . . . . . . . "We do not believe we have a crisis in energy at this present time," said Water Minister Edna Molewa.

President Obama on Thursday signed an executive order readying sanctions and visa restrictions on individuals the administration said were responsible for “destabilizing Ukraine.” “The President has signed an Executive Order that authorizes sanctions on individuals and entities threatening the peace, security, stability, sovereignty, or territorial integrity of Ukraine; contributing to the misappropriation of state assets of Ukraine; or purporting to assert governmental authority over any part of Ukraine without authorization from the Ukrainian government in Kyiv,” said the White House in a statement.

SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine — As the pro-Russian authorities in Crimea pressed ahead on Thursday with measures to break away from Ukraine and become part of Russia, President Obama said that their plans for a referendum would “violate the Ukrainian Constitution and violate international law.” The developments came as the United States and the European Unions moved to provide new support for the national government in Kiev and sought ways to press President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to de-escalate the crisis in Ukraine. President Obama said in Washington: “Any discussion about the future of Ukraine must include the legitimate government of...

Obama places restrictions and sanctions on anyone "threatening the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine."

Polish Defence Ministry decided recently to continue a service of 32 Su-22M4/UM3K attack aircrafts used by the 21st Tactical Air Base in Swidwin. The variant of a service longer than 3 or 10 years (until to 2025 years) is considered. This is related with the technical modernization of the Polish Air Force. The reason was a current in the fall of 2013 plan for the withdrawal of all Su-22 until 2015. Not so long ago, in the Technical Modernisation Plan for the years 2013-2022 there was a record for the modernization of airport in Åšwidwin and the purchase of 16...

A knowledgeable Ukrainian source in Stanford, Calif, told WND the “real power in Kiev and much of Western Ukraine today belongs to several rival neo-Nazi factions whose masked, well-armed adherents are busy looting abandoned properties and shaking down businesses for money to support their ‘revolution.’” “They have already made territorial demands to each of the countries bordering the Ukraine, including the NATO members Poland, Hungary and Romania, and they have declared their intention to acquire nuclear weapons,” the source said. Other European neo-Nazi parties, such as Jobbik in Hungary and the Golden Dawn in Greece, are “amateurs compared to Ukraine’s...

As the United States prepares to draw down its military to, if President Barack Obama gets his way, pre-World War II levels, countries around the world that do not exactly share our interests are building up their militaries.First up on the build-up list – Russia. Even as Russia continues to occupy Crimea, and even as France is hosting talks to defuse that crisis, France began sea trials of the first of two Mistral-class amphibious assault/helicopter carrier ships the Russian Navy bought in 2011 for $1.6 billion, the Vladivostok. The Vladivostok is still on track for a fall 2014 delivery to...

President Obama has signed an executive order today imposing sanctions on individuals he said violate Ukrainian sovereignty or are "stealing the assets" of the Ukrainian people. He said the sanctions were meant to "impose a cost" on Russia's action in Crimea. Obama emphasized that new visa restrictions the U.S. placed on those who are opposing the Ukraine government “continue our efforts to impose a cost on Russia and those responsible for the situation in Crimea.”

Ukraine's acting president said on Thursday a referendum planned by the pro-Moscow parliament in Crimea on joining Russia was illegitimate, and declared it a farce and crime organized by the Russian military. In a short televised address, Oleksander Turchinov said the Ukrainian parliament would start procedures to dismiss the Crimean assembly and block the referendum.

Russia’s strategy in the Ukrainian crisis Analyses 2014-03-05 Marek Menkiszak The toppling of the Yanukovych regime and the taking over of power in Ukraine by the opposition were a strategic defeat for Russia, whose aim had been to permanently block the process of Ukraine’s European integration and make the country part of Russia's own integration project, the Eurasian Union. It also delivered a blow to the image of president Putin as an effective leader. After the failed attempt at creating, with Russian political support, an alternative centre of power in Kharkiv that would represent the eastern and southern regions of...

Overthrown Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych tops the list of 24 former state and law enforcement officials wanted on suspicion of involvement in the mass murders of EuroMaidan demonstrators from Feb. 18-20, when 74 people were slain. On March 6, Ukraine's Healthy Ministry said that a total of 100 people had been killed in clashes since the start of the EuroMaidan Revolution on Nov. 21, with several dying from wounds in recent days. Here is Ukraine's new Prosecutor General Olega Maknytsky list of wanted fugitives: Viktor Yanukovych, 63, former president of Ukraine, ousted by parliament on Feb. 22 after he fled...

17.42 Poland's defence ministry has confirmed that the US military will send 12 F-16 fighter jets and 300 service personnel to Poland next week for a training exercise whose scope was expanded in response to the crisis in neighbouring Ukraine. Tomasz Siemoniak said the training exercise, centred on the Lask air force base in central Poland, was originally to have been smaller and involved only transport aircraft. He said Poland requested it be beefed up after Russia's intervention in Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula.

Poland could handle being cut off from Russian supplies of natural gas by turning to other sources and improving domestic infrastructure, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Wednesday. "The current gas reserves and the fact that winter is coming to an end allow us to say that Poland is no longer vulnerable to possible gas sanctions on the part of our neighbour to the east," Tusk told parliament. The EU country of 38 million currently imports 10.5 billion cubic metres of gas from Russia each year, about two-thirds of its demand. Starting next month, Poland's imports "from alternative sources to the...

Editor’s note: As part of its ongoing coverage of the CF-18 fighter aircraft replacement, Defence Watch has published a number of articles from authors supporting various aircraft. This week Defence Watch will be running a three-part series that looks at the Rafale filling the role as Canada’s next fighter jet. It is written by Yves Pagot, PhD
ParisTech Institute, and a
reservist in Armée de l’Air. (i.e. reservist with the French Air Force, he is in a parachute unit). Pagot notes that he does not have any connection to Dassault or the firms involved in the Rafale production. By Yves Pagot Defence...

The Canadian Labour Congress is asking Statistics Canada to change the way it reports on unemployment, saying a more fulsome analysis of the data it collects would paint a very different picture of the country’s labour market. ... The biggest omission, says the CLC, is the category economists call “underemployment,” which captures part-time workers who want to be full time, along with the involuntary self-employed and other underutilized workers. ... The most telling number is that the employment rate — the number working as a percentage of the total in the age group — is down to 54.5% from about...

French newspaper La Tribune reveals Egyptian Navy Forces about to acquire four Gowind corvettes from French DCNS in a €1 billion deal French newspaper La Tribune has revealed that Egyptian Navy Forces have struck a tentative agreement worth €1 billion with French Naval Defence Company DCNS to purchase four Gowind corvettes, three of which will be manufactured in Egypt. According to La Tribune, the four corvettes weigh 2,400 tonnes and are equipped with surface-to-air VL Mica and sea-sea Exocet missiles. The newspaper reported that French DCNS won the bid to provide the corvettes to the Egyptian navy against the Meko...

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...

Defence minister Tomasz Siemoniak says a 40-strong OSCE delegation, including two Poles, were blocked from entering Crimea by unidentified men wearing military uniform. "The mission has been detained, they cannot go further. They landed in Odessa and they were traveling by car from Odessa towards the Crimean Peninsula, but they were detained by unidentified men in fatigues," Siemoniak said on Wednesday afternoon, adding that they may be allowed to go back the way they came but would not be allowed in to Crimea, Reuters reports. OSCE spokeswoman Natacha Rajakovic has confirmed the observers were blocked from entering the region. The...

he day the movie "The Monuments Men'' opened locally, 90-year-old Fran Estadt chose an aisle seat in the darkened theater with two of his sons at his side. With plenty of leg room, he got right down to the business of watching a long-ago chapter of his life portrayed on the big screen. No popcorn required. - snip -"Who cares about art?'' he said, in the forthright fashion familiar to his friends and family. "Everybody cares about gold.'' And in Merkers Salt Mine in Germany in the spring of 1945, there was more gold than this young soldier from New...

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arsenii Yatseniuk on Thursday (6 March 2014) that “in these difficult moments, NATO stands by Ukraine. NATO stands by the right of every nation to decide its own future. NATO stands by Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and by the fundamental principles of international law”. The Secretary General and the Prime Minister discussed the grave developments in Ukraine and how NATO and Ukraine can strengthen their partnership. The Secretary General said the crisis in Ukraine “presents serious implications for the security and stability of the Euro-Atlantic area as a whole.”...

The Obama administration is showing it can be tough on foreign policy. Unfortunately, that toughness is not directed at Russia and its incursion into Crimea, but at Israel, America's ally.

As the situation in the Crimean Peninsula continues to deteriorate, there has been plenty of time for analysts to try to sort out where this show is heading, what the long term implications are and – perhaps more importantly – what the rest of the world can, or should, do about it. It’s not difficult to conclude that Russia is clearly “on the wrong side of history� (to borrow a phrase from the President) and something needs to be done. But what?There are a couple of very interesting articles on this subject offering a rather counter-intuitive answer from Dr. James...

In Moscow, especially in the not-so-good old days, the question almost always asked is kto vinovat: “Who is to blame?” The American capital now finds itself engaged in that very Russian exercise ever since President Vladimir V. Putin’s troops entered Ukraine. Many on the right maintain that Moscow’s land grab is President Obama’s fault for pursuing a foreign policy of weakness. Some on the left contend that it is former President George W. Bush’s fault for invading Iraq and providing a precedent. And across the political spectrum there are accusations that it is the intelligence community’s fault for failing to...

National Security: As Russia test-fires new, updated ICBMs on the heels of its Ukraine invasion, Obama's top arms negotiator is busy downsizing and mothballing America's nuclear arsenal and destroying our deterrent.