Free Republic

On the surface, the show of people power in this former Soviet state has striking similarities to the ouster of pro-Russian leader Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine in 2014, or Eduard Shevardnadze in Georgia in 2003. There are differences, however, argues Moscow-based political analyst Karine Gevorgyan. “In Armenia, in particular, this situation is not linked with being oriented either to the West or to the East, like it was in Ukraine, but with being tired of inefficient, counterproductive power in government,” Gevorgyan told VOA in an interview. No Moscow puppet Anahit Shirinyan of the policy institute Chatham House agrees and says...

... Last year, the Ukrainian tankmen in T-64BV tanks took 4th place out of five teams, placing ahead of the Polish team in their Leopard 2A5 vehicles. The Austrian team in their Leopard 2A4s were the winners last year, while the Germans won in 2016.

Secretary Michael Pompeo met with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto in Washington on Wednesday. The two discussed areas of mutual interest and opportunities for our countries to increase cooperation. The Secretary underscored the importance of maintaining a vibrant civil society. The Secretary also emphasized the urgent need to help Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression, including the importance of facilitating and supporting Ukraine’s engagement with NATO, and the need to counter Russian malign influence in Central Europe. Both sides agreed that Europe should diversify its sources of energy and discussed increasing U.S. investment in Hungary. The Secretary and Foreign...

BREAKING: Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko, who was reported killed in Kiev, shows up at a news conference in Ukraine.

On May 25, the FBI warned that anyone who uses a router to connect to the internet should reboot their routers. The warning comes amid a Russian malware (malicious software) called VPNFilter that can secretly install itself onto internet routers and collect data from an unsuspecting user. So far, it's estimated that 500,000 devices - mostly from the Ukraine - have been affected. Rebooting internet routers will "temporarily disrupt the malware and aid the potential identification of infected devices," according to the FBI. The agency also recommends to disable your routers' remote management settings, and update the password you use...

A precious tool in my hand is the one I am able to wield to build and construct My Temple in each and every child I have given life to. So be the trowel of My hand laying the mortar of Unity my children for I AM building My Temple in others as I have built My temple in you . . . 1 Peter 2:1-10 2 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in...

Violent Russian thugs who attacked Liverpool fans in Ukraine have issued a stark warning to England supporters planning to attend the World Cup. Trouble Company, a notorious hooligan group, said fans traveling abroad will face 'hell' during the 2018 competition. The group's followers have released a string of messages on social media claiming responsibility for the violence in Kiev, which saw Brits hospitalised.

The U.S. is affirming new findings from investigators linking the 2014 downing of a Malaysia Airlines passenger plane to the Russian military. The State Department said Thursday that it has "complete confidence" in the Dutch-led probe that determined Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 had been shot down using a missile launcher from a Russian anti-aircraft brigade. Investigators announced findings from the long-running probe on Thursday, nearly four years after the plane carrying 298 passengers from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, went down over Crimea, a Ukrainian territory annexed by Russia. "We recall the UN Security Council’s demand that 'those responsible …...

A Dutch-led international criminal investigation has concluded that the Buk missile that shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine in 2014 came from Russia's 53rd Antiaircraft Missile Brigade. The Joint Investigative Team (JIT), comprising authorities from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands, and Ukraine, made the announcement at a press conference on May 24 in Utrecht, the Netherlands. MH17 was shot down over the conflict zone in Ukraine's Donetsk region on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 people on board. The JIT "has come to the conclusion that the Buk-TELAR that shot down MH17 came from the 53rd Antiaircraft Missile...

Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, received a secret payment of at least $400,000 (£300,000) to fix talks between the Ukrainian president and President Trump, according to sources in Kiev close to those involved. The payment was arranged by intermediaries acting for Ukraine's leader, Petro Poroshenko, the sources said, though Mr Cohen was not registered as a representative of Ukraine as required by US law. Mr Cohen denies the allegation. The meeting at the White House was last June. Shortly after the Ukrainian president returned home, his country's anti-corruption agency stopped its investigation into Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort....

Revelations that an FBI informant insinuated himself into the Trump campaign have led some congressional investigators to rethink their theories on how and why former President Barack Obama's Justice Department began investigating the 2016 Trump presidential effort. Most reporting has focused on the July 31, 2016, creation of a document formally marking the beginning of the FBI counterintelligence probe targeting the Trump campaign. The document, known as the electronic communication, or EC, is said to have focused on the case of George Papadopoulos, the peripheral Trump adviser who has pleaded guilty to lying to special counsel Robert Mueller about his...

The FBI reportedly decided to open its investigation into the Trump campaign after George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser for the Trump team, drunkenly admitted to an Australian diplomat the Russians had damaging information on Hillary Clinton, an admission that came weeks before WikiLeaks began publishing its tranche of hacked emails. Papadopoulos made the revelation in May 2016 to Alexander Downer, the top Australian diplomat in Britain, while he was drinking at the Kensington Wine Rooms in London. Three weeks earlier, a professor with ties to the Russian government told Papadopoulos the Russians had emails that would be damaging to...

It has been quite some time since I have reported on John and Tony Podesta. Tony Podesta has literally disappeared from public view. As far as John Podesta, he does tweet now and again. Judicial Watch has received access to new emails coming from John Podesta. The emails prove John Podesta lied when he said he was not affiliated with the Podesta Group. There are documents from the U.S. Department of State showing the Podesta Group working on behalf of the pro-Russia Ukrainian political group “Party of Regions.” The documents also reveal then Obama White House Counsel John Podesta lobbying...

Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko has signed a decree to withdraw all Ukrainian envoys from the statutory bodies of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a loose political and economic confederation of nine post-Soviet nations heavily dominated by Russia. The decision was announced on Poroshenko’s Twitter page in tribute to Europe Day, celebrated in Ukraine on May 19. “For us, the CIS is completely and entirely gone to the past,” the message on the presidential page also reads. “Our future is in Europe only!” The CIS was formed by a group of former Soviet republics in the agonizing final days of...

KIEV — Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team has been meeting over the last year with a Ukrainian lawmaker at the center of a controversial plan to end his country’s conflict with Russia, pressing him for details about interactions with Trump administration officials. Andrii Artemenko told POLITICO that FBI agents had peppered him with “assorted questions” over “at least” two interviews about his “meetings, dealings and the questions discussed with various levels of the American political establishment.” “These included congressmen, senators and representatives of the White House administration,” he added in a telephone conversation on Friday, after a meeting with members...

Ukraine, which along with most of the international community has not recognized Russia's annexation of Crimea, condemns the projectKERCH – President Vladimir Putin drew condemnation from the US, Europe and Ukraine on Tuesday, May 15, after he opened a new bridge linking mainland Russia and Moscow-annexed Crimea by driving a truck across it to the peninsula. Putin dressed in jeans and a casual jacket was shown by Russian state television behind the wheel of a construction truck to drive 19 kilometers (12 miles) across the bridge, which links the Taman peninsula in southern Russia to Ukraine's Crimea, which was annexed...

Poland signed the largest arms procurement deal in its history on Wednesday, agreeing with the United States to buy Raytheon Co’s (RTN.N) Patriot missile defense system for $4.75 billion in a major step to modernize its forces against a bolder Russia. “It is an extraordinary, historic moment; it is Poland’s introduction into a whole new world of state-of-the-art technology, modern weaponry, and defensive means,” President Andrzej Duda said during the signing ceremony. NATO member Poland has accelerated efforts to overhaul its ageing weaponry following Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014. Two-thirds of Poland’s weaponry dates from the Cold...

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III has been appointed to preside over the special counsel’s criminal case against Paul Manafort. That is bad news for Robert Mueller. At a Friday hearing, Judge Ellis accused the Mueller team of “lying” about the scope of its investigation. He asked for a copy of the unredacted “scope memo” penned by Rod Rosenstein, which Congressional Republicans have also sought.The judge is particularly concerned that much of the information that forms the basis of the Manafort indictment was compiled by the Justice Department during the Bush and Obama Administrations, when Robert Mueller was the FBI Director.I...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday sharply criticized Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s criminal case in Virginia against President Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and openly questioned whether Mueller exceeded his prosecutorial powers by bringing it. “I don’t see what relationship this indictment has with anything the special counsel is authorized to investigate,” U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis in the Eastern District of Virginia said. At tense hearing at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, the judge said Mueller should not have “unfettered power” in his Russia probe and that the charges against Manafort did not arise...

KYIV -- The United States has confirmed to RFE/RL its delivery of American-made, Javelin antitank missile systems to Ukraine in a move that is welcome in Kyiv but will almost certainly enrage Moscow amid a four-year conflict that pits Russia-backed separatists against Ukrainian national troops. "They have already been delivered," a U.S. State Department official confirmed on April 30 in response to an RFE/RL query on the handover of Javelins. In a statement posted on Facebook, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko also confirmed the delivery and said his country continues "to strengthen our defense potential in order to repel Russian aggression."...