Free Republic

America’s recent troubles in the Red Sea have ramifications that go beyond backtracked cargo and skirmishes with Islamic militias. At stake is global dominance of maritime trade — and the consequent dominance of global politics. As The New American has documented, U.S. naval forces are embroiled in conflict with Iran-backed Houthi militants in the Red Sea in order to prevent this Yemeni militia from targeting Western commercial vessels. Attacks from the Houthi have set back supply chains and prompted big firms such as CGM, Hapag-Lloyd, and BP to avoid the Suez Canal over safety concerns.But while the United States and...

Former TV journalist Yekaterina Duntsova was disqualified on Saturday from running against President Vladimir Putin in an election next March because of alleged flaws in her application to register as a candidate. Video from a meeting of the central electoral commission showed members voting unanimously to reject the candidacy of Duntsova, who had wanted to run on a platform to end the war in Ukraine and release political prisoners. -snip- The head of the electoral commission, Ella Pamfilova, offered words of consolation to Duntsova after her rejection. "You are a young woman, you have everything ahead of you. Any minus...

Russia has launched its biggest drone attack on Kyiv since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine began last year, the city's mayor has said. Residents were woken by explosions before dawn on Saturday, and for more than six hours, the booms of Kyiv's air defences echoed through the city. There was wave after wave of attacks from the north and east. Officials said that more than 75 Iranian-made Shahed drones were fired at the capital, and 74 were shot down. With Russia's dwindling missile stocks, Shahed drones are seen as a cheap alternative. They are slower than ballistic missiles and have...

The fall of the Berlin Wall was indeed a watershed in the collapse of the Soviet Empire, yet one could argue the true death knell came two months before at a small grocery store in Clear Lake, Texas.. he fall of the Soviet Union is sometimes remembered as Nov. 9, 1989, the day the Berlin Wall symbolically collapsed. While the physical barrier endured for some two more years, on that day, East German Communist Party officials announced they would no longer stop citizens of the German Democratic Republic from crossing the border. The fall of the barrier that scarred Germany...

-snip- The changes Putin greenlighted limit coverage of Central Election Commission sessions to registered media outlets, which could exclude freelancers or independent journalists, according to the reports on Tuesday. The amendments prohibit media from reporting on the commission’s actions at military bases or in areas under martial law without advance clearance from regional and military authorities. They also bar the publication of any campaign content on “blocked sources”, referring to restricted websites and social media services. Under an intensifying crackdown on the opposition and the flow of information, Russia has banned an array of websites and services, including Facebook and...

For Moscow to finally let go of its imperial ambitions, it must lose the war it has been waging in Ukraine. As the history of the last few hundred years shows, this is the only way Russia will change. The idealogue at the head of Putinist Russia, Vladislav Surkov, has made his vision of an ideal Russia very clear. In his view, Russia is a country that “having stopped falling, has begun to rebuild itself and returned to the natural and only possible state of a great, growing and land-collecting community of nations." Surkov says that Russia makes "no promise"...

Ukraine is “not winning” its war against Russia, according to a close advisor of President Volodymyr Zelensky. Despite the difficult situation on the ground, Zelensky’s belief in an outright Ukrainian victory is said to be unmovable, according to a new report by Time. The close aide said: “He deludes himself. We’re out of options. We’re not winning. But try telling him that.” Zelensky is said to feel abandoned by the West which he believes has provided Ukraine with enough support to stop Russia but not to outright win the war. he President is dead set against a truce or peace...

Last March, a Palestinian delegation arrived in Moscow for talks with Russian officials. The delegation was from Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that's been labeled a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union. The meeting, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry, touched on Russia's "unchanged position in support of a just solution to the Palestinian problem.""When considering the issue of restoring Palestinian national unity, the Russian side expressed its readiness to continue to assist in overcoming differences and bringing together the positions of leading Palestinian political forces and movements on the platform of the Palestine Liberation Organization,"...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s planned meeting with Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok, as revealed by US intelligence, gives us a new insight into Russia’s strategy in Ukraine as well as a warning of wider dangers for the world.As Kyiv’s offensive wears on into its fourth month, with only limited success and a few Russian counter attacks, it is becoming clear that Moscow’s plan may be to allow Ukraine to exhaust its men, tanks, shells and missiles against the Surovikin Line’s hardest edge. The thinking could be that, once Ukraine’s Western equipped and trained manoeuvre forces have been ground down, Russia...

Big Russian hammer starting to fall on ukie heads...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the BRICS grouping of countries was on course to meet the aspirations of most of the world's population, according to recorded remarks at a summit of the BRICS countries in South Africa on Tuesday. "We cooperate on the principles of equality, partnership support, respect for each other’s interests, and this is the essence of the future-oriented strategic course of our association, a course that meets the aspirations of the main part of the world community, the so-called global majority," Putin said. -snip- Putin was unable to attend the summit in person because of an arrest...

Nicaragua’s Communist dictator, Daniel Ortega, has authorized the installation of Russian military bases on his territory. The decree is reported to have been signed on Monday, August 21, according to the Russian state news site “Avia.Pro”. Avia.Pro reports: The President of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, signed a decree according to which the deployment of Russian military bases and deployment of cruise missiles will be allowed in the country. This decision could become an important factor in the geopolitical balance of the region, especially given its close proximity to the United States. The Russian news site also highlights the distance between Nicaragua...

Nato appears to have abandoned hopes of a Ukrainian victory. Speaking in Norway, secretary general Jens Stoltenberg’s chief of staff, Stian Jenssen, said that a peace deal might involve Kyiv ceding territory to Russia in return for Nato membership.

America’s Brobdingnagian $1.3 trillion national security budget thrives on manufactured threats and falsely demonized foes. or crying out loud. Since the Munich Security Conference in 2007, the man (Putin) has said over and over, and then over again, that Ukraine’s ascension to NATO is an absolute red line. And anyone with their head screwed on right would have no trouble accepting that declaration by answering one simple question. To wit, how would Washington react if Russia put missiles and nukes in Mexico, or Cuba, or Nicaragua, or Granada or Venezuela or even Tierra Del Fuego? The bloated now 31-nation NATO...

The grim assessment is based on Russia’s brutal proficiency in defending occupied territory through a phalanx of minefields and trenches, and is likely to prompt finger pointing inside Kyiv and Western capitals about why a counteroffensive that saw tens of billions of dollars of Western weapons and military equipment fell short of its goals.…. But in the first week of fighting, Ukraine incurred major casualties against Russia’s well-prepared defenses despite having a range of newly acquired Western equipment, including U.S. Bradley Fighting Vehicles, German-made Leopard 2 tanks and specialized mine-clearing vehicles. The bleak outlook, briefed to some Republicans and Democrats...

Russia and China teamed up on a major military exercise off the coast of Alaska last week, according to a new report. The Wall Street Journal said the 11-ship force “appeared to be the largest such flotilla to approach American shores,” citing experts it did not name. Four U.S. destroyers and P-8 Poseidon aircrafts kept a wary eye on the ships.

Douglas Macgregor @DougAMacgregor FACT: People in Washington know the Ukrainians are finished, they know they can't replace the losses.The question now is what comes next and nobody wants to accept publicly the fact that the Russians are in a strategically powerful and dominant position. 10:39 PM · Aug 5, 2023 · 2,086 Views

Russia’s defence minister accompanied North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to a defence exhibition that featured the North’s banned ballistic missiles as the neighbours pledged to boost ties, North Korean state media reported on Thursday. The Russian minister, Sergey Shoigu, and a Chinese delegation led by a Communist Party Politburo member arrived in North Korea this week for the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War, celebrated in North Korea as “Victory Day”.

A national defense analyst says NATO and the West need to pay attention to Russia’s repeated warnings about using nuclear weapons, this time from a notable academic who concludes Russia must consider nukes to stop NATO expansion and to “save humanity” from the West. “Russia and its leadership seem to be facing a difficult choice,” begins the academic paper by Sergei Karaganov. “It becomes increasingly clear that a clash with the West cannot end even if we win a partial or even a crushing victory in Ukraine.” That frightening document, which published in late June, goes on for another 2,900...

@DougAMacgregor HERE IS WHAT THE MEDIA WILL NOT TELL YOU.. Ukrainian forces are on the verge of collapse, they are totally demoralized. They've all been killed, it's OVER.