Free Republic

Moscow/Beirut (dpa) - One hundred and sixty Russian citizens fighting for the terrorist group Islamic State in Syria have been killed, a Russian deputy foreign minister said on Thursday, amid stepped-up international military action in the war-torn country. "At the present time, there are more than 25,000 foreign terrorist militants fighting under the banner of Islamic State, including from Arab countries, Europe, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States [a bloc of post-Soviet republics]," Oleg Syromolotov said, quoted by state news agency TASS. He added that 2,719 Russian citizens had gone to fight for the Islamist militia in Syria. "One...

The remarks were made by Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Presidential Administration Andriy Taranov. Russian army specialists are training a militant army of 50,000 men in the parts of Ukraine's Donbas territories where the government has lost control, Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Presidential Administration Andriy Taranov said on Friday, Radio Liberty reports. "According to information we have, on the uncontrolled territories of almost 50,000 armed men, which is being formed into military units and trained by Russian specialists," Taranov said.

President Vladimir Putin put Russian combat troops on high alert for a drill on Wednesday, the Kremlin's most powerful gesture yet after days of sabre rattling since its ally Viktor Yanukovich was toppled as president of Ukraine. Thousands of ethnic Russians, who form the majority in Ukraine's Crimea region, demonstrated for independence for the peninsula that hosts part of Moscow's Black Sea Fleet. They scuffled with rival demonstrators, mainly from the Tatar minority, who support the new authorities in Kiev. With the political turmoil hammering Ukraine's economy, the hryvnia currency tumbled 4 percent on Wednesday, with ripples spreading to Russia...