Free Republic

Congress is facing the most significant and transformational opportunity to strengthen the U.S. defense industrial base (DIB) since the end of World War II. The heritage equipment that the United States has provided to Ukraine for its self-defense in the face of the brazen and illegal invasion by Russian forces in 2022 needs to be replenished to ensure the United States is postured to continue to deter its adversaries. The new hardware will be produced at factories across the nation. Of the $113 billion appropriated by Congress to date related to the conflict in Ukraine, as much as $68 billion...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Saturday called the April 1 Israeli strike on the Iranian diplomatic mission in Damascus that left at least 13 people dead, including a high-ranking general, a “political killing,” Anadolu Agency reports. The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Lavrov condemned the Israeli attack in a phone talk with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. “Any attacks on diplomatic and consular facilities, the inviolability of which is guaranteed by the relevant Vienna Conventions, are categorically unacceptable, as well as political killings,” he said. Seven Iranian military advisers are said to have been killed in the...

Members of Russian military intelligence unit 29155, who allegedly have access to microwave or ultrasound weapons, had been placed at the scene of reported attacks that resulted in US personnel suffering health problems, according to a year-long investigation by the Latvia-based Insider in collaboration with CBS’s “60 Minutes” and Germany’s Der Spiegel. Christo Grozev, the head of investigations with The Insider, told “60 Minutes” that he uncovered accounting records that show a 29155 officer received a bonus for work related to the development of “non-lethal acoustic weapons.” Unit 29155 has reportedly operated around the world since 2008, and is suspected...

Synopsis: The Crocus City Hall concert venue had the Pavshino Police Department located in the same facility. Video taken at the start of the terrorist attack shows a canine officer present. The commentator says the officer ran away from the scene when the shooting started. The commentator also says that none of the officers present confronted the terrorists which would concur with an absence of any such claim from Russian authorities. This is also consistent with the terrorists being captured well away from the crime scene. The commentator quotes a Ukrainian journalist who cites the failings of Russian authorities who...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Ukraine of trying to disrupt his country’s presidential election by shelling Russian territory and using 2,500 soldiers to try to pierce Russia’s borders, promising to punish Kyiv for its actions. Polls opened across 11 time zones in Russia on Friday to begin three days of voting with Putin almost certain to secure his fifth term since winning his first election in 2000 with dissent in the country almost completely stifled. The shadow of the Ukraine war fell across the election with what Putin said was repeated shelling of western Russia and an attempt by...

Russian citizens have conducted a string of explosive protests in defiance of a presidential election rigged in favour of Vladimir Putin as voting opened on Friday. Video purported to show a woman dousing a Moscow voting booth in flammable liquid before setting it on fire and recording the drama on her smartphone. The fire was promptly extinguished and the woman detained, according to local media. But similar acts of vandalism continued around the country, with a voter setting a ballot box alight in Khanty Mansi region in Siberia, according to local reports. In Saint Petersburg, a woman threw a Molotov...

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told Republican senators Wednesday to expect the House to send them legislation to help Ukraine, but cautioned that what comes out of the House will look substantially different than the $95 billion foreign aid package the Senate passed last month. Johnson tried to reassure frustrated GOP senators who asked him about funding for Ukraine during a question-and-answer session at the annual Senate Republican retreat, which was held at the Library of Congress. Johnson told senators that the House will send a Ukraine aid package to the Senate but floated the idea of making it a loan...

Hamas and Fatah are expected to attend a meeting in Moscow to discuss the future governance of a Palestinian state. Representatives from Palestinian political factions, including Hamas and Fatah, are expected to meet in the Russian capital, Moscow, to discuss the formation of a unified Palestinian government amid Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 30,000 people. Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova, reporting from Moscow, said on Thursday that while there was a lot of “uncertainty” about the meeting, it is expected to last three days for the factions to develop a “unified strategy”. “Russia has previously held similar...