Free Republic

Estonia is a little nation of 1.3 million people, which was made a member of NATO in 2004. Estonia was once a province of the Soviet Union. It has a Russian minority that is 25 percent of the population, and Russia has vowed to protect ethnic Russians if they are subjected to mass violence by the Estonian majority. Did NATO make a wise decision to bring in itty-bitty baltic nations that were once part of the Soviet Union? I can understand the importance of preventing the Soviet Union from being brought back into existence. But the lives of American troops...

This would make for another great issue on conservative talk shows.For the last five or six years the Liberals and Democrats have been pushing for this Universal Health-Care plan.They are so concerned over the uninsured.But are they aware that It's The Democrat Party That Caused All This??.Who Purposely Collapsed The Economy In 2008?,And what happened after the Liberals ruined a perfectly good economy and health-care system during the Bush years?Millions lost their jobs and their health-care!,yet according to them,it's all the fault of Bush and the GOP.Yah,right!,and all Americans are so dumb that they are expected to believe such horse-manure.

President Barack Obama may authorize the shipment of new air defense systems to rebel forces in Syria’s ongoing civil war, a new Associated Press report states. Citing an unnamed US official, the AP stated Obama is mulling over the idea of sending man-portable air-defense systems, also known as MANPADs, to Syrian opposition groups, a move that would mark a notable shift compared to the White House’s past statements. As RT reported last month, the Obama administration has been interested in employing new ways to put pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad and boost the opposing rebels, who have lost ground...

It is quite hard to take the claims by Hobby Lobby seriously. The main drugs in question in the case brought before the Supreme Court are the emergency contraceptives Plan-B and Ella. One huge problem with this situation is that up until 2012, Hobby Lobby provided them as part of their insurance plan. Only when they realized that Obamacare was going to mandate this coverage did they suddenly become interested in not providing these drugs. In their initial complaint to the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, Hobby Lobby stated, “After learning about the current HHS...

Ukrainian national security service has put Crimea’s chief prosecutor Natalia Poklonskaya on its wanted list. She is charged of taking actions aimed at the violent overthrow of constitutional order and takeover of government power. Poklonskaya took the office as Crimea defied the coup-imposed government in Kiev and sought independence from Ukraine. After the peninsula joined the Russian Federation, she was appointed as Crimea's acting chief prosecutor by Russia’s General Prosecutor Yury Chaika. The Ukrainian National Service for Security and Defense accuse her of violating article 109 of the Criminal Code, which deals with overthrow of the government. Poklonskaya became somewhat...

Russian President Vladimir Putin's approval rating has reached 80 percent, with a majority of Russians saying the country is heading in the right direction, an independent pollster said Wednesday. A poll by the Levada Center said public support for the Russian leader rose by 8 percent since Putin delivered an address to parliament on Crimea before the predominantly Russian-speaking region rejoined Russia last week. Levada said Putin's approval rating peaked at 85 percent in spring 2008, when Dmitry Medvedev, now prime minister, succeeded him as president. Another poll by Levada last week said a majority of Russians believe their country...

Moscow is studying Washington's list of individuals against whom sanctions were imposed, and already puzzled by some of the names, Russian President's Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said. "One can say straight away that we are extremely bewildered by the presence of some names on the list," Peskov said. "So far I cannot say what the reaction is of other people on the US list but Ivanov perceived the news with humor," the president's press secretary said. Ivanov spent 20-odd years serving in the KGB's First Main Directorate and later in the Russian External Intelligence Service, Peskov recalled. "As a result...

Vladimir Putin has mocked US sanctions imposed on Russia, saying he will open an account at US-sanctioned Rossiya Bank. During a meeting with the country's senior security officials he added that he won’t introduce a visa regime with Ukraine. Putin treated with irony the recent sanctions imposed on certain Russian lawmakers. “Yes, these are those so-called ‘polite people in camouflage with guns’,” ironically said Putin hinting at Western accusations that Russian soldiers have taken bases in Crimea. “Look at them, typical Moskals [pejorative term for Russians – ED.],” he added, pointing at US sanctioned prominent businessmen Arkady and Boris Rotenberg,...

Ukrainian border guards closed the exit from the Republic of Crimea, local authorities said on Saturday. The office of the Crimean Federal District, which was established by President Vladimir Putin on Friday, said that even Ukrainian servicemen who wanted to leave Crimea could not cross the border. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, only 2,000 out of 18,000 Ukrainian troops serving in Crimea decided to leave the peninsula.

<p>Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday installed Colonel General Myhaylo Koval as the country's new acting defense minister after approving the resignation of his predecessor, Ihor Tenyukh.</p> <p>Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov had nominated Koval, a 58-year-old military man who has commanded a parachute battalion and served as the deputy head of the State Border Service, after the Ukrainian Rada accepted the resignation of Tenyukh in a second vote on the matter, Interfax reported.</p>

‘Ukrainian’ drone downed above Moldova’s breakaway region A drone has been shot down over Transdniestr, Moldova’s breakaway region, the region’s security service has reported on its website. On March 23, the pilotless aircraft was photographing and videoing the republic. Transdniestr special services recovered the video record from the drone, the statement says. According to preliminary information, the unmanned aircraft was launched from Ukraine’s soil by a group of people allegedly linked to Ukraine’s security service, the Interior Ministry’s General Staff or supporters of ultra-nationalist movement Right Sector for an intelligence-gathering operation. Currently, Transdniestr’s security service is working on the identification...

Fifteen years after NATO’s 78-day bombardment of Yugoslavia, memories of the bombing still haunt present-day Serbia. NATO killed over 2,000 people, hundreds were civilians, 88 were children. Serbs ask ‘why?’ above all. Why did NATO smash their cities, kill their children, bomb hospitals and schools? When the NATO bomb campaign began (on March 24th 1999) Jelena Milincic was a student at the University of Belgrade, and just 18 years old. When the first bombs shook Belgrade she cowered under a table with her mother, sister, and best friend. Remembering this 15 years later, they laugh nervously. Jelena takes Anissa Naouai...

Ukraine’s interim Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has authorized the detention and questioning of the leaders of radical Right Sector party after receiving threats of retaliation for the killing of one of its notorious activists, a ministry’s source said Tuesday. The source said on condition of anonymity that Avakov’s order includes a police sweep of Kiev's Independence Square, known as Maidan, which is still occupied by scores of ultranationalists. “Investigators from the ministry are already working at some of the tents on Maidan,” the source said, adding that a crackdown on Maidan could start later tonight. Ukrainian special forces have gunned...

MOSCOW, March 26 (RIA Novosti) – Moscow is demanding Ukraine to refrain from irresponsible practices that are threatening the safety of civil aviation, according to a Russian Foreign Ministry statement published on Wednesday. Ukraine’s border control continues to deny Aeroflot crewmembers to leave their airplanes. “Such actions are not in line with international acts and conventions in following the demands for safe flights of international civilian aviation,” the statement reads.

A ruling by a Ukrainian court to suspend broadcasts of four Russian TV channels in Ukraine is an attack against human rights and media freedom, a senior Russian diplomat said on Tuesday. The District Administrative Court in Kiev ruled to suspend broadcasts of Russia's Rossiya 24, Channel One, RTR Planeta, and NTV-World in Ukraine pending hearings on a permanent ban. "Undoubtedly, this should be viewed only as an infringement on democratic freedoms and as a violation of Ukraine's international obligations. Certainly, millions of [Russian-speaking] residents of this country have the right to watch [Russian] TV and have access to [other]...

I'm not the world's foremost expert on Russia... But I believe I know enough to at least try to clear up a few of the misconceptions I see on forums and have been listening to on talk radio for the past few weeks. A bit of Russian history for starters... Slavic farmers invited Vikings (Verangians) into what you'd now call Russia and set up the Kievan state which adopted Christianity around 988 AD so that the territory controlled by the city of Kiev was the dominant power in Russia prior to the Mongol invasion in 1236. In other words, they'd...

The group of five major emerging national economies known as the BRICS has rejected the Western sanctions against Russia and the “hostile language” being directed at the country over the crisis in Ukraine. “The escalation of hostile language, sanctions and counter-sanctions, and force does not contribute to a sustainable and peaceful solution, according to international law, including the principles and purposes of the United Nations Charter,” foreign ministers of the BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - said in a statement issued on Monday.

Rallies have swept eastern Ukraine, with residents protesting against Kiev’s coup-imposed government and demanding a referendum to decide on the future of the region. Thousands took to the streets in Kharkov, Donetsk, Lugansk, and Odessa on Sunday. About 5,000 protesters gathered in the city of Kharkov on Sunday to rally in favor of federalizing the country and holding people’s referendums in eastern Ukraine. The demonstrators also demanded to make Russian the official language of the Kharkov region. Russian is the most common first language in the eastern regions. Furthermore, the residents of Kharkov proclaimed illegitimate the political part of the...

That time of the week has come again where we sift through the debris of the preceding week and find out which person or group has been acting against the American people. Sometimes these entities are cloaked in the aura of righteousness, but they can mostly be described as hypocrites or opportunists. Our Jerk of the Week this time is a surprising choice is it is a group that represents an occupation that most Americans greatly respect and admire: doctors. Recently, the American Medical Association began to whine about an obscure rule in ObamaCare that could cost medical practitioners a...

Empty it on the world market. This should effect Russia. The others? Who knows. We won't be needing it soon.