Free Republic

Rights activists and immigration attorneys say the surge in the number of Russian asylum applications in the United States has been driven in part by the 2013 law concerning sexual minorities. Putin has been accused by critics of overseeing a mounting crackdown on dissent -- including against the political opposition and businesspeople not in step with the Kremlin – and fostering stigmatization of sexual minorities since he regained the presidency. 'I Had To Leave' Vlad, a gay Russian applicant in his 30s, told RFE/RL that he was simply looking to move somewhere where he could live "more freely," and that...

The Associated Press news agency on Wednesday acceded to a Russian request to delete the term "former ally" from an article mentioning the relationship between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany during World War II. The article, which was published at the beginning of the month in media outlets worldwide, including Haaretz, was about a Ukrainian city commemorating the 75th anniversary of the destruction of its Jewish community. It included the claim that "in June 1941 Germany attacked the Soviet Union, its former ally." On Wednesday, ten days after the article was published, AP amended the text. The news agency...