Free Republic

MOSCOW/VILNIUS, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Russian police have put Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, Lithuania's culture minister, and members of the previous Latvian parliament on a wanted list for destroying Soviet-era monuments, according to the Russian interior ministry's database. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Kallas was wanted for the "desecration of historical memory". Russian state agency TASS said the Baltic officials were accused of "destroying monuments to Soviet soldiers", acts that are punishable by a five-year prison term under the Russian criminal code. *snip* The Baltic governments regard the monuments as propaganda tools constructed by their former imperial overlords. "The...

The speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament is accusing the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, and other groups of killing Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. ... "Washington and Brussels are to blame for Navalny’s death," Volodin said, according to translations from the Moscow Times. "Who benefits from Navalny’s death today?" "All their names are known: from the Secretary General of NATO and the U.S. leadership to [German Chancellor Olaf] Scholz, [British Prime Minister Rishi] Sunak and [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky — they’re the perpetrators of Navalny’s death," he added, according to the Moscow Times.

The Book of Proverbs, Chapter 26, contains this invaluable insight: “As dogs return to their vomit, so fools repeat their folly. You see those who are wise in their own eyes? There is more hope for fools than for them.” Invaluable because, in connection with the Russia-Ukraine War, the passage powerfully illuminates the current debate about Ukraine’s future strategic prospects.The past few months have witnessed the dog returning to its vomit in the form of any number of efforts to once again make the case that Ukraine still has a path to total victory in its war against Russia. In...

In a move raising eyebrows, House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Turner declares a "serious national security threat" linked to Russia, intensifying concerns and prompting urgent calls for action. Turner's release of a letter on Wednesday regarding a purportedly destabilizing foreign military capability has ignited a flurry of speculation about the nature and credibility of the threat. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan's evasive responses during questioning only fueled skepticism, leaving the public in the dark about the details. A CNN source claims the threat is "highly concerning and destabilizing," further stoking anxieties.

Associated Press — Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law Wednesday that will allow authorities to confiscate money, valuables and other assets from people convicted of spreading “deliberately false information” about the country’s military. The bill sailed through the lower and upper houses of the Russian parliament, and was unanimously endorsed by the upper house last week. The speaker of the lower house, Vyacheslav Volodin, said the measure includes harsher punishment for “traitors who sling mud at our country and our troops” and would “strip those scoundrels of honorary titles, confiscate their assets, money and other valuables.” Russian officials have...

What have I done to be placed on the sanctions list of the Russian Foreign Ministry, alongside several distinguished historians of eastern Europe? My normal hunting ground (not the right word for a maritime historian) is the Mediterranean and the oceans beyond. But maybe Russia’s mandarins know that I am now writing about the Black Sea. Since the reign of Peter the Great in the 18th century, Russia has seen the Black Sea as a vital gateway to the wider world. The Ottoman sultans blocked Russian attempts to reach warmer waters via Istanbul. Russian ships bound for intended conquests had...

Russian President Vladimir Putin described the collapse of the Soviet Union as "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century." This documentary from 2021 shows the path Russian foreign policy has followed under Putin. [This documentary was originally released in 2021. In February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine.] On December 25, 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. Along with it came hope for the end of the Cold War, for independence and freedom for the former Soviet republics. But for many it also brought poverty and war. What remains of the dreams of that time? The...

As the second anniversary of Russia's unprovoked invasion approaches, the situation is beginning to look bleak for Ukraine.Last year's counteroffensive brought hopes that Ukraine could capitalize on its successes in 2022 and drive back Russian forces from occupied territories in southern and eastern Ukraine.But the offensive failed to achieve a breakthrough, and Ukraine is now seeing crucial support from its allies bleed away. Meanwhile, its troops are experiencing shortages of personnel and ammunition.There are problems at the top, too. Its senior command has been engulfed in chaos, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy replacing Valery Zaluzhny, a senior commander, amid reported...

Vladimir Putin wanted Russia to join Nato but did not want his country to have to go through the usual application process and stand in line “with a lot of countries that don’t matter”, according to a former secretary general of the transatlantic alliance. George Robertson, a former Labour defence secretary who led Nato between 1999 and 2003, said Putin made it clear at their first meeting that he wanted Russia to be part of western Europe. “They wanted to be part of that secure, stable prosperous west that Russia was out of at the time,” he said. The Labour...

1. Poland cooperated/collaborated with Hitler’s Germany.Before World War II, Polish diplomacy tried to keep good neighbourly relations with Germany. Poland’s entering into any sort of military alliance with Hitler was out of question. In the period between the First and Second World Wars, Poland found itself between two aggressive neighbours: Germany and Russia, neither of which practically recognized Polish nation’s right to have an independent state. In 1934, in Berlin, the German–Polish declaration of non-aggression was signed, which was intended to guarantee the settling of disputes by peaceful means. Even before that, in 1932, a similar non-aggression pact was signed...

Tucker proves people have a hunger for information In a hotly anticipated interview that began with a history lesson for Americans on the founding of Russia, President Vladimir Putin told Tucker Carlson that NATO expansion eastward and a 2014 coup that installed an anti-Russian government in Ukraine forced his country into war in 2022. “In 2008… the doors of NATO were opened for Ukraine,” Putin said to Carlson in a sweeping conversation posted to X on Thursday, February 8. The former Fox News host has become the focus of intense vitriol within big-box media and political circles for traveling to...

The Russians have warned us over and over again that they will use nuclear weapons if they are forced into a direct war with western powers. So why are most western leaders not taking those threats seriously? Ukraine is not worth fighting a nuclear war over. Both sides would be wise to try to find a peaceful resolution while it is still possible to do so. But instead, we continue to see escalation after escalation. In particular, the Biden administration seems determined to see how close it can go without pushing things completely over the edge. This is very foolish,...

Avdiivka Endgame. Russian Offensive in South Donetsk. Can Ukraine hold in Pervomaivske, Heohiirvka and Novomikhailivka?

Russian opposition leader challenging Vladimir Putin in March's presidential election can expect to be poisoned or imprisoned, according to prominent Putin ally Vladimir Solovyov. Boris Nadezhdin, a former State Duma member who is known for opposing Russia's war in Ukraine, announced on Wednesday that he was filing papers to challenge Putin in the election. The announcement came after a successful campaign to collect at least 100,000 voter signatures required to appear on the ballot. Solovyov, the host of a popular Russian state television show known for pushing Kremlin propaganda, warned Nadezhdin during a broadcast a short time later that his...

Warriors of the special unit "Group 13" of the Defence intelligence of Ukraine destroyed the missile corvette "Ivanovets" of the russian Black Sea Fleet. As a result of a number of direct hits to the hull, the corvette was damaged, rolled to the stern, and sank

Among the prisoners exchanged today, there were no individuals who were allegedly on the Il-76 plane, according to the representative of the Defense Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Andrii Yusov. Russians claim that on January 24, the downed Il-76 plane had 65 Ukrainian prisoners on board who allegedly died in the plane crash. Russian propagandists have published a list of these individuals. However, the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, in turn, confirmed that people from this list were indeed planned to be exchanged on January 24. However, according to the representative of the...

Mariupol flourishing after liberation from kleptonazi Kiev regime

Guys buying their way out of the meat grinder and the scheme by which the kleptonazi regime avoids paying death benefits to survivors of soldiers killed in the meat grinder.

Ukraine is desperate. It cannot win on the battlefield, and Victoria Nuland’s sister-in-law, who runs the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), is the source of all the propaganda that keeps painting Russia as weak to get the West to attack it. Ukraine is now using drones and long-range missiles, violating the air space of NATO with no concern, and attacking an oil refinery in Finland. Now, they attacked a refinery in southern Russia. It was the Ukrainians that destroyed Nord Stream. The hardliners in Russia say they are correct and they should have nuked Kyiv. They are now...

The State Department on Monday brushed off reports of Russian President Vladimir Putin ordering his government to look into the nation’s former “real estate” abroad, saying Alaska would be staying in American hands. Putin signed a new decree last week to allocate funds for the research and registration of Russian property overseas, including that in former territories of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union, Russian state media TASS reported. The decree, which comes amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, did not specifically mention Alaska, though it caught the attention of military bloggers, who argued Putin was using the decree to...