Free Republic

Modern Russia is built on Black Sea oil. Russia was never any good at producing consumer goods so she has evolved into a major oil exporter since the Soviet Union collapsed. Russia absolutely depends on oil money. With help from America’s Democrats Russia has become a wealth parody of everything the old Russia pretended not to be. New millionaires are partnering with Russia’s criminal class that has always been a part of life on Moscow’s streets. They have become rich on the oil they could sell at twice its actual price thanks to the Democrats’ insistence upon putting caribou ahead...

A Russian scholar is predicting that the United States' current financial crisis will lead to the breakup of the country. Igor Panarin, a professor at the diplomatic academy of Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the newspaper Izvestia on Monday that America will break apart into six regions following the crisis. "Dissatisfaction is growing, and it is only being held back at the moment by the elections, and the hope that [President-elect] Obama can work miracles," according to a translation by Bloomberg. "But when spring comes, it will be clear that there are no miracles."

MOSCOW (AP) — India's navy was supposed to lease the brand-new Russian nuclear submarine that suffered an accident over the weekend which killed 20 people, news reports said Monday. An Indian naval spokesman would not comment Monday on leasing this or any submarine from Russia — but his boss has said previously that India was interested... Full read... http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j3kNPOn62KBcB4-4G9VnNlTG2KgwD94C3TMG0

Security: As Russian warships steam into Venezuelan waters, the show is dismissed by some as rust-bucket bravado. But for all its navy's flaws, Russia's maneuvers herald challenges to the U.S. — and not just in Venezuela.Russian warships from its Northern Fleet reached the Venezuelan port of La Guaira in a first 15,000-mile global journey in decades. Led by the missile cruiser Peter the Great, and conducting live-fire exercises, it's the first Russian demonstration of force in waters adjacent to our own shores in 20 years. The White House downplayed it, and the State Department said they don't view the maneuver...

DMITRY Medvedev, the Russian president, looks to have committed a strategic blunder by sending Barack Obama a message on his election day threatening the deployment of nuclear missiles to Kaliningrad. On an occasion, when even America's twin nemeses, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, sent telegrams of good wishes, Mr Medvedev's act stood out. The truth is that the Obama administration, facing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the nuclear ambitions of Iran has assigned Russia a low priority.

The president-elect is caught between bellicose threats from Moscow and hawks at home. Russia didn't waste any time in putting President-elect Barack Obama on notice. A day after the election, President Dmitry Medvedev renewed Russian warnings that he would base short-range Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad, on the border of Poland, if the U.S. proceeds with plans to base a missile defense system in Europe, with the hardware in Poland and the Czech Republic. And this week, the Kremlin rejected new proposals put forward by the Bush administration to assuage concerns that the system could be used to neutralize Russia's nuclear...

After Barack Obama's election win, Kremlin officials argued over whether Russian President Dmitry Medvedev should congratulate him with a warm, handwritten letter or an impersonal note, according to one analyst. Russia's intense dislike of U.S. policies and its resolve to stand up to them are not in doubt but the anecdote illustrates a dilemma the Kremlin is wrestling with about what tactics to use in dealing with an Obama White House. Do they pile on the pressure to force him to drop disputed projects like the missile defense system in Europe, or take a more conciliatory tone, hoping that if...

Russia will offer to share its air defence expertise with Cuba when a military delegation visits the Caribbean island this week, Interfax news agency reported on Monday. "The Russian and Cuban military will exchange experience in organising tactical air defence and in training officers," Interfax quoted Russian Land Forces spokesman Igor Konashenkov as saying. The two sides will "discuss the prospect of training Cuban servicemen at the tactical air defence academies and training centres in Russia, using upgraded Russian-made military hardware," Interfax quoted him as saying. The delegation, led by the chief of Russia's tactical air defence headquarters, Lieutenant General...

resident Dmitry Medvedev is to visit Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez has been cultivating stronger military and economic relations with Russia. Stops in Brazil and Cuba are also planned. By Chris Kraul November 15, 2008 Reporting from Bogota, Colombia -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev plans to travel this month to Venezuela, Brazil and Cuba to strengthen regional ties, a tour that underscores a foreign policy challenge close to home that awaits the Obama administration. Medvedev's visit to Venezuela comes as Russia and the Latin American nation strengthen their economic and military relationship. In July, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a strident...

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, arriving in Washington for international economic talks, Saturday struck a conciliatory tone toward the United States and expressed hope that President-elect Barack Obama will help improve the deteriorating U.S.-Russian relationship. Medvedev, who spoke defiantly of the United States hours after Obama was elected, told an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington that Russia believes Obama will act to overcome problems that have been accumulating in the relationship between the two countries. He said he believed that a meeting with Obama should take place soon, and felt that Obama shared that view. Obama has...

A spy at the heart of Nato may have passed secrets on the US missile shield and cyber-defence to Russian Intelligence, it has emerged. Herman Simm, 61, an Estonian defence ministry official who was arrested in September, was responsible for handling all of his country's classified information at Nato, giving him access to every top-secret graded document from other alliance countries. He was recruited by the Russians in the late 1980s and has been charged in Estonia with supplying information to a foreign power. Several investigation teams from both the EU and Nato, under the supervision of a US officer,...

Venezuelan President says the agreement for the Humberto Fernandez Moran Nuclear Facility will be signed when Russian President Medvedev visits Venezuela accompanied by a Russian fleet of warships next week. Chavez also revealed that Russian nuclear technicians are already at work in Venezuela. CARACAS -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said that his country and Russia intend to build a nuclear reactor in the oil-rich state of Zulia. "A nuclear reactor, to produce energy for peaceful purposes, will soon be built in the state of Zulia and named in honor of the Venezuelan scientist of the last century Humberto Fernandez Moran,"...

Russia's banal reality lies in between energy superpower and bankrupt state Russia has been losing $10bn in foreign reserves a week since it snatched South Ossetia and ramped up the new Cold War with nuclear threats. By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Last Updated: 3:47PM GMT 17 Nov 2008 A fifth of the Kremlin’s fire-fighting fund has gone before the economic crisis even starts. Would the Medvedev-Putin duo have provoked the West so nonchalantly had they known that global recession would soon cut the price of Urals crude oil to $49.35 a barrel, knocking away the chief prop of Kremlin finance and Russian...

I shot down McCain A retired Red Army Lieutenant who fought in Vietnam has confessed to shooting down the plane of defeated presidential candidate, John McCain. Colonel Yuriy Trushechkin told Russia’s Moskovsky Komsomolets he had no regrets about downing the future Senator’s aircraft back in 1967. Journalists from Russia’s most popular tabloid paper found the veteran in a St Petersburg hospital. Trushechkin said he still hated John McCain and wasn’t at all sorry for what he had done all those years ago. He added he was very happy that McCain didn’t make to the White House. ”He always hated the...

Russia's Gambit By Vasko Kohlmayer FrontPageMagazine.com | Monday, November 17, 2008 On November 5th – less than 24 hours after the victory of Barack Obama in the US presidential race – Russian President Dmitri Medvedev announced that his country would install short-range semiballistic missiles in the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad. The deployment is part of Russia’s bid to halt the construction of the Ballistic Missile Defense Shield in Europe, a project virulently opposed by the Kremlin. Medvedev’s statement is a clear indication that after months of threats and intimidation, the Russian leadership has finally settled on a definitive course of...

‘Antimissile shield in Poland provokes Russia’ Italian PM says Created: 13.11.2008 10:35 Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi stated yesterday that the deployment of the US antimissile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic is a “provocation” against Russia. “Let’s speak frankly: we believe that there have been some provocations against the Russian federation such as the project to deploy missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic,” Berlusconi said. Italy’s PM reminded that the Russian president Dmitrij Medvedev’s response to that plan was to announce the deployment of missiles in – as Berlusconi put it – “the Russian enclave in the...

Warsaw and Prague dismiss Sarkozy's missile shield plea POLAND AND the Czech Republic have dismissed an appeal by French president Nicolas Sarkozy to freeze talks on their plans to host a controversial US missile defence shield, which Russia fiercely opposes, writes Daniel McLaughlin Moscow has threatened to station missiles in its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad - wedged between EU and Nato members Poland and Lithuania - if the US plan goes ahead, and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev appeared to have persuaded Mr Sarkozy of the delicacy of the issue at Friday's EU-Russia meeting in Nice. "As president of the European...

ussia expects its trade with Latin American countries to reach $15bn by the end of 2008, the Foreign Ministry's information and press department said, quoting head of the ministry Sergei Lavrov today. He noted that the figure was rising rapidly, growing 25 to 30 percent per year

The Russian Army, long known for the overwhelming depth of its human resources, is now seeking out arms technology that reduces the need for putting soldiers in harm’s way. As Ha’aretz, the Israeli daily, reported yesterday, the Russia is looking to buy unmanned aerial vehicles, or U.A.V.’s, from Israel. Apparently, the Russian military liked what it saw during the conflict in Georgia (of course, at the time, any flattery was plainly destructive): The Russian initiative comes as part of the lessons learned from last summer’s war with Georgia in South Ossetia and from Russian officials’ positive impressions of the Hermes...

Usually we see Muslims trying to stifle our freedom of speech. It happened in Michigan and the United Nations. But this time it was not even Muslims, it was Russian prosecutors. I wonder if these prosecutors find the Koran insulting to non-Muslims? That is if they even bothered to read one.