Free Republic

Stockholm (AFP) - Sales by Russian arms manufacturers continue to expand thanks to Moscow's investments despite a downturn in global defence spending, a Stockholm-based think-tank said Monday. "The remarkable increases in Russian companies' arms sales in both 2012 and 2013 are in large part due to uninterrupted investments in military procurement by the Russian government during the 2000s," said Siemon Wezeman, senior researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Sales by Russian-based arms firms grew by 20 percent in 2013, according to SIPRI. However, figures for the 100 biggest arms-dealing nations excluding China declined for the third year...

The second Project 22350 frigate, the Admiral Kasatonov, was set afloat at the Northern Wharf in Russia's northern capital of St. Petersburg in the presence of Russia’s Navy Chief Commander Admiral Viktor Chirkov. “We set afloat a second Project 22350 warship designed for remote sea areas to ensure Russian national interests in any part of oceans in the world. This warship has embodied all thoughts and ideas of our designers and requirements of our fleet,” Chirkov said. He recalled that Admiral Gorshkov, the first warship of the project, is already at sea trials. “I hope that the Northern Fleet will...

Turkey could scrap a controversial plan to buy missile defense systems from China that alarmed the United States and its Western allies, Turkish and European sources said on Nov. 12. Key NATO member Turkey said in September last year that it was entering negotiations with the China Precision Machinery Export-Import Corporation (CPMIEC) to acquire its first long-range anti-missile systems. However, the plan has deeply concerned the United States, which has already imposed sanctions on the Chinese company for supplying arms to Iran and Syria in defiance of an embargo. "Several options are on the table, including a cancellation of the...

Turkish police on Sunday arrested the editor of Turkey's biggest-selling newspaper and 26 others in lightning raids on supporters of a US-based cleric who has become President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's top foe.

OPEC won't rush to cut oil production even if prices fall as low as $40 per barrel, one of the cartel's members said Sunday. The energy minister for the United Arab Emirates told Bloomberg at a Dubai conference that the middle eastern oil producers believe "the market will stabilize itself." "We are not going to change our minds because the prices went to $60 or to $40," Suhail Al-Mazrouei said. Even as it has watched prices dip, OPEC declined to cut back on production at its November meeting. Some observers had expected a production cut to boost the price of...

The policies enacted by the Orban administration, in defense of national interests against the world's great capitalists, are being fought by underhanded means and by resorting to street protests organized and financed by foreigneres. By Kovács Andras - Translated by Alessandra Nucci from Riscossa Cristiana. The street demonstrations against the Orban administration which are taking place in these days are useful to the European Union and the United States who aim to carry out a coup d'état. Why? Because Viktor Orbán isn't doing their bidding. It isn't the Hungarian people who want to topple the government. Last April the...

If you're looking for a good laugh this week, you probably can't do better than Tuesday's White House press conference. Reporters asked spokesman Josh Earnest about the confirmation of two Obama-appointed ambassadors whose confirmation was only possible because Democrats manipulated Senate rules earlier this year to make it easier to approve executive-branch nominees. By the narrowest of margins, two people completely unqualified to represent U.S. interests abroad were confirmed to serve in relatively important countries they know nothing about. Colleen Bell, the new U.S. ambassador to Hungary, is a former soap opera producer who couldn't name a single strategic interest...

Yesterday, the Senate confirmed in a vote of 52-42 to make a producer of “The Bold and The Beautiful” the United States’ new ambassador to Hungary. Colleen Bell also contributed almost one million dollars to the President’s reelection campaign, a fact that Senator John McCain repeatedly brought up in a fiery speech on the Senate floor denouncing the President’s nominee. “We’re about to vote on a totally unqualified individual to be ambassador to a nation which is very important to our national security interest,” he said. “Her qualifications are as a producer of the television soap opera ‘The Bold and...

White House spokesman Josh Earnest was unable to provide a cogent explanation for why Colleen Bell, a former soap opera producer, just became the U.S. ambassador to Hungary: "Josh, I wanted to ask you about something else that happened today in the Senate," said ABC's Jon Karl in today's White House press briefing. "You had some of your ambassadors confirmed after a long, long process. One of those is Colleen Bell, confirmed as ambassador to Hungary. If you can remind me, what are Colleen Bell's qualifications for ambassador? Was it that she was a soap opera producer, is it that...

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Speech at the 25th Bálványos Summer Free University and Student Camp July 30, 2014 9:24 AM26 July 2014, Tusnádfürdő (Băile Tuşnad), Romania Good afternoon, everyone! Greetings to all of you!When we last saw each other a year ago, I began my speech by saying that we are attending the last gathering here in Tusnádfürdő before the upcoming general elections in Hungary. Now, I can tell you that we are attending the first gathering here in Tusnádfürdő following the elections in Hungary, and I can tell you all the good news that we were victorious at those...

Putin has become shockingly effective at influencing European politics through a host of far-right parties. The following chart from the Center for Eurasian Strategic Intelligence (CESI) shows Russia's growing influence within six different European Union countries. The parties, located in the UK, France, Germany, Greece, Bulgaria, and Hungary, are increasingly popular—and staunchly against giving more power to the EU. Each of the parties has also fostered a closer relationship with Russia, and has protested against sanctions on Moscow following its annexation of Ukraine.

Staunton, December 13 – Four Russian analysts suggest that the six causes they identify as being behind the collapse of the USSR are again to varying degrees present in Russia today, but what is perhaps more interesting than the causes they do identify is the one that they don’t: the ways in which the six they do helped power a seventh: nationalism Russian and non-Russian. In a 4400-word article in “Russky Reporter” this week, Vladimir Bazhanov, Andrey Veselov, Dmitry Karpets and Aleksandr Pototsky consider to what extent the six causes they say led to the demise of the USSR are...

VIENNA (AP) — A Russian loan to France's National Front. Invitations to Moscow for leaders of Austria's Freedom Party. Praise for Vladimir Putin from the head of Britain's anti-European Union party. As the diplomatic chill over Ukraine deepens, the Kremlin seems keener than ever to enlist Europe's far-right parties in its campaign for influence in the West, seeking new relationships based largely on shared concern over the growing clout of the EU. Russia fears that the EU and NATO could spread to countries it considers part of its sphere of influence. And it has repeatedly served notice that it will...

This week, oil fell through the price floor of $60 a barrel and gas at my local filling station was $2.26 a gallon. That’s great news for commuters and almost every business, but wonderfully bad news for our ugliest enemies. If oil prices remain low through next year, the effect on rogue governments, from the Russian Federation to Venezuela, will go from damaging to devastating. But Western economies (and China’s) stand to benefit, with cheap oil possibly tickling Europe’s snoozing markets awake. Even most underdeveloped states will get a welcome break.

On Monday, 28 Russian military planes including TU-95 and TU-22 strategic bombers were intercepted over the Baltic Sea near Latvia's border. On Tuesday, a Russian plane violated Estonia's airspace. Poland's defense minister later accused Putin of launching "unprecedented activity" around the Baltic Sea. Gen. Philip Breedlove, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, said the recent Russian flights were "of a different nature than we've seen in a while." The warplanes were intercepted by NATO in international airspace. "For the past 19 years, we have been trying to treat Russia as a partner, trying to bring the nations of Europe back together...

Stockholm (AFP) - With an assertive Russia next door, Sweden has started to beef up its military after a decade of downsizing, but a credible deterrent may take years to achieve, analysts warn. In one of Sweden's most dramatic steps since the end of the Cold War, it has brought back the option of using reservists to boost its military force, making no attempt to hide the fact that the main motivation behind the move is Russia. Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist went on TV this week to argue the move was necessary against the backdrop of Russia's rearmament and its...

Moscow (AFP) - Russia's defence ministry on Sunday denied a report by Swedish military that a Russian military plane nearly collided this week with a passenger plane over Sweden. Russia's defence ministry did not deny that its plane was in the area at the time of the incident on Friday, but said that it was at a safe distance of more than 70 kilometres (43 miles) from the flight path of the passenger jet. The incident happened amid growing concern in the Baltic region over signs of more assertive Russian behaviour, including Russian planes skirting or violating the national airspace...

It's not clear what's happened,probably another meteorite explodes, Sverdlovsk region,Russia Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=bf3_1416311834#dyTzQBMp3dP5Gcue.99

While both the Ukrainian and Russian governments continue to point fingers at one another for the MH17 crash, former Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) urged caution Friday against jumping to any conclusions about where blame lies. Some American pundits accuse Vladimir Putin of having “blood on his hands” since the missile that took down the Malaysia Airlines flight may have been a Russian weapon given to pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine. Speaking with Newsmax TV’s John Bachman earlier today, Paul said “Putin is a little bit smarter than that. I don’t think he would ever come close to participating in an act...

So while nobody knows the future we still need to know what to expect from the week's two big headlines, even though our view can easily (and will probably) be muddied w/ other factors.  So we deal with an unknown future by checking the historical record for clues on at what the news means to our future investment returns.  What oil bargains do:  namely, what's it doing to the economy and to investments; here's what tanking oil's done in the past (ya gotta LOVE the fed's data site) and how real oil prices (2014$ per barrel) track real GDP-- [click...