Free Republic

Moscow took sharp action on Friday to curb inflation, fearing the effects of ever higher spending on the war in Ukraine and of a weakening Russian ruble. Russia’s central bank took the unexpected step of raising its benchmark interest rate by a full percentage point, to 8.5 percent from 7.5 percent. It was the first large hike in more than a year, and the bank warned that further increases were likely. “It is a surprise and on its face reflects more concern at the central bank about inflation and how the economy is doing than we had appreciated,” said Robert...

The United States is wiring Ukraine with sensors that can detect‌‌ bursts of radiation from a nuclear weapon or a dirty bomb and can confirm the identity of the attacker. In part, the goal is to make sure that if Russia detonates a radioactive weapon on Ukrainian soil, its atomic signature and Moscow’s culpability could be verified. Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine 14 months ago, experts have worried about whether President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia would use nuclear arms in combat for the first time since the American bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The preparations, mentioned last...

What’s known is that $250 billion in capital has left, equivalent to 14 percent of its GDP. One expert guesstimates that Russia’s economy has shrunk from the size of Italy’s to Chile’s in the past year — you wouldn’t know this based on bogus figures fed to the media by Moscow. Economist Janis Kluge of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) calculates that Western sanctions alone have also “basically shrunk Russia’s economy by 10 percent”, bigger than what happened in the 2009 financial crisis. What is also known is that immediately after the invasion of Ukraine, an...

Concerns over a Chinese invasion of Taiwan continue to mount with Beijing now suspected of involvement in damaging some of the island nation's undersea internet cables this week in another show of deliberate harassment. The disruption to Taiwan’s internet was not only a nuisance for the island’s inhabitants and visitors, it also revealed significant implications for Taiwan's national security.

The mood among Russia’s special forces and the FSB began to change dramatically in the fall, when Russian troops abandoned Kherson, suffering the latest of many humiliations for the Russian army. ''' We’ve known most of our contacts in Russia’s special forces and the FSB for years, and none was particularly religious before the war. Now a wave of mysticism has descended on them; the apparent trigger being a growing understanding that the war is not going to end anytime soon. '''

Graphic drone footage appears to show dozens of Russian armored vehicles getting ambushed and destroyed during a single botched attack near the coal-mining town of Vuhledar in eastern Ukraine, which Moscow’s forces have been trying to capture for months. Vuhledar, a Ukrainian stronghold at the strategic intersection between the eastern and southern front lines, has seen some of the bloodiest fighting of the war as the Kremlin is gearing up for a decisive offensive on the eastern front. Based on the newly released video evidence, a column of dozens of tanks and armored vehicles was lost or damaged last week,...

Kiev has the right to siphon off supplies destined for the EU, a Ukrainian politician claims. The former chairman of Ukraine’s parliament, the Rada, Dmitry Razumkov has stated that Kiev has the right to confiscate Russian gas that flows to the EU through Ukraine, and sell it in order to solve the country’s economic problems. “The gas that is transported through the territory of Ukraine is Russian. To the border with Europe, it is Russian gas. And if we act in accordance with the law, we e should confiscate it,” he said in a video posted on Facebook on Friday....

Ankara supports Ukraine's territorial integrity and rejects the illegal annexation of Crimea, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday. "The return of Crimea to Ukraine, of which it is an inseparable part, is essentially a requirement of international law," Erdogan said in a video message to the Second Crimea Platform Summit. The Crimea Platform is an international coordination mechanism of Ukraine to draw more global attention to Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. Erdogan said Ankara will continue to support the Crimean Platform that was established to resolve the Crimean issue through peaceful means. "Türkiye does not recognize...

U.S. natural gas prices take a sharp turn lower after Freeport LNG said on Tuesday it now expects to restart its shuttered export plant in early to mid-November, and ramp up to a sustained level of at least 2B cf/day by the end of November, delaying the timeline from a previous estimate of October. Freeport LNG's newest recovery plan will utilize the company's second loading dock as a lay berth until loading capabilities at the second dock are reinstated in March 2023, when it anticipates being capable of operating at 100% of capacity. Nymex front-month natural gas futures (NG1:COM) for...

Hot Summer for the Vatniks

On Sunday, May 8, 2022, the day before WW2 Victory Day, the Head of the Russian Church, Patriarch Kirill, gave an extraordinary homily on the connection of a nation's spiritual life and its military exploits. He was serving morning services at the newly built Central Cathedral for the Armed Forces, in a suburb 1 hour south of Moscow. (More info about this unusual cathedral below). We strongly recommend watching the whole sermon, it is fascinating. (English captions can be turned on in the video settings) At the 10.17 mark he appealed to Russia's armed forces, and told them that the...

Fellow FReepers, know this: In Russian, the ukraine means "the frontier". To Ukrainians, Ukraine means HOME. We don't call it "The France", or "The Germany", or "The Mexico", etc. Drop the "the" and correctly use the nation's name uncorrupted by the oligarchs in "mothertrucker Russia".

Thanks to Glenn for his documentary, which included info about the Ukrainian Famine/Genocide/Holodomor, but the Holodomor has two tragic attributes – it was a genocide that claimed more than all the battlefields of WWI and it was subject to a cover up that is unsurpassed, continuing today. However this leftist site, Media Matters, tries to belittle the cover up aspect by claiming that the Holodomor is well known – having been “on the History Channel”! However true to form, the History Channel link betrays not a hint of genocide – only that “unknown thousands died during collectivization” which is the...

A Ukranian pilot who was due to fly 157 passengers from Stockholm to Tenerife on Tuesday was replaced at the last minute after ground crew smelled alcohol on his breath, Swedish media reported. "The airline flew in a new pilot and the plane is expected to take off in the evening," Stockholm-Arlanda airport spokesman Jan Lindqvist told news agency TT. The Ukraine International Airlines airplane had stopped over in Stockholm for reloading and was due to fly on to Tenerife -- one of Spain's Canary Islands -- when the incident occurred, TT said. A blood test was taken from the...

PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you. It's an honor to stand with a courageous leader of a free Ukraine. Mr. President, you are a friend to our country and you are an inspiration to all who love liberty. Welcome to America, and we're pleased to welcome your wife, as well. We're looking forward to having lunch with you. President Yushchenko was the first head of state I called after my inaugural address. I told him that the Orange Revolution was a powerful example -- an example of democracy for people around the world. I was impressed, I know millions of my fellow...

A REMARKABLE ELECTION TOOK PLACE in Ukraine on December 26. After the ruling party stole the November 21 presidential vote, massive street protests forced a new runoff, in which the rightful winner, Viktor Yushchenko, finally prevailed.Although I have neither Ukrainian blood nor any special interest in foreign affairs, I have followed events in that country closely because a dear friend of mine, Katherine Chumachenko, is married to Yushchenko and about to become first lady of Ukraine.Leading up to the election, I was called by Russian "reporters" looking for information on Kathy, or Katya, as she prefers today. I should say...

Election rules have been tightened ahead of the poll Ukrainians have begun voting for a new president in a repeat ballot called after outrage over fraud led to the cancellation of the result.Pro-Western opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko is strongly tipped to defeat Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, whose 21 November win was widely discredited. Correspondents say the margin of victory will be almost as important in a country with a sharp east-west split. About 12,000 foreign observers are monitoring the vote across the country. Thousands of supporters of Mr Yushchenko, in their distinctive orange colours, are camped out in freezing...

Vladimir Putin takes on democracy, the West and all-comers THE drama playing out in the streets of Ukraine in recent weeks has been gripping in its own terms. But its bigger significance for the West lies north-east of Kiev, in Russia. As the tide moves towards a presidential election victory for the opposition leader, Victor Yushchenko, on December 26th, the efforts of Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, to thwart him have looked ever more cack-handed. But they have also depressed those who still hoped that Mr Putin's Russia might move, slowly and tortuously, on to a path leading to political liberalism—and...

IF you didn't know better, you'd think the Cold War was back: The chill in rela tions between Russia and the West recently hit a new low for the post-Soviet era. Russia's ongoing interference in the Ukrainian election is only one (glaring) symptom of the new "Great Game" now developing in Central Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia — the area Russia calls its "near abroad." (The European Union calls it "common space.") Most Russians see Ukraine as culturally and historically a part of Russia. To them, the crisis isn't about fraudulent elections. It's about Mother Russia — her history,...

he elder President Bush's most memorable foreign-policy blunder took place in Kiev in 1991, then under Communist rule. With the Soviet Union coming apart, the U.S. president - badly advised by the stability-obsessed "realist" Brent Scowcroft - made a speech urging Ukrainians yearning for independence to beware of "suicidal nationalism." His speech, which he now insists meant only "not so fast," was widely taken as advice to remain loyal to Moscow's empire.I dubbed this the "Chicken Kiev" speech. That so infuriated Bush, who mistakenly saw the phrase as imputing cowardice rather than charging colossal misjudgment, that he has not spoken...