Free Republic

There are currently two wars that Russia is fighting: the kinetic one in Ukraine that receives all the attention—or at least received all the attention before the Gaza Crisis—and a financial one that remains relatively unnoticed. This hidden economic crisis is actually more important and relevant, and how Putin decides to address it will determine the outcome of the war on the field.

Bretton Woods II was built on “inside money” (U.S. dollars) dominating “outside money” (hard money, gold, uranium, oil, etc.). Seizing Russia’s FX reserve balances in February 2022 marked the beginning of the end of Bretton Woods II. The internationally illegal precedent of Victoria Nuland and Samantha Power’s confiscation of said FX reserves to Ukraine will be the end of the end of Bretton Woods II.

Synopsis: A panel of Russian commentators on state owned television channel "Russia 1" discussing a recent 'naked party' by Russian elites and their reactions to it. Russia language transcript at the link. Click the 'more' button and you'll see the transcript feature.

Russia's egg crisis spiraled out of control this week after an attempt was made on the life of the head of a poultry farm in the Voronezh region, with prices for the staple food item continuing to climb. Gennady Shiryaev, the 59-year-old head of the Tretyakov Poultry Farm, the largest in the western Voronezh region, was driving home when an unknown person fired two shots at his car. Shiryaev told Russian news outlet Kommersant that he wasn't injured in the assassination attempt. "There were two shots, it didn't hit me," Shiryaev said. Russia has seen an unprecedented surge in egg...

Perhaps knowing it will irk the liberal media, former President Donald Trump praised Vladimir Putin's rebuke of President Joe Biden as exposing "the rottenness of the American political system." "Remember, this: Joe Biden is a threat to democracy," Trump told his Durham, New Hampshire, campaign rally Saturday in a speech that aired live and in its entirety on Newsmax. "He's a threat."

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin dismissed as complete nonsense remarks by U.S. President Joe Biden that Russia would attack a NATO country if it won the war in Ukraine, adding that Russia had no interest in fighting the NATO military alliance.The war in Ukraine has triggered the deepest crisis in Moscow's relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and Biden warned last year that a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia would trigger World War Three.In a plea to Republicans not to block further military aid earlier this month, Biden warned that if Putin was victorious...

Russian citizens say they are living relatively normal lives despite the imposition of worldwide sanctions following the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to a new poll.A Gallup survey found that 56% of Russian respondents believe their local economies are improving, while 46% agree that living standards are also improving — a record since the poll began in 2006.The upbeat sentiment comes as Western countries are losing the motivation to continue supporting Ukraine’s defense efforts, with many analysts now saying that Russia has the upper hand in the war.Most Russians feel that war efforts are benefiting them, according to a...

Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta’s membership on the executive board of an energy company, Joule Unlimited, which received millions from a Putin-connected Russian government fund, also included “75,000 common shares,” according to an email exchang uncovered by the Wikileaks hacks. In the newly-uncovered email exchanged under the subject “Podesta Outstanding Docs for Joule,” Eryn Sepp, who was an assistant to Podesta at the Center for American Progress, forwarded a message to Podesta from Mark C. Solakian, who was Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Joule Unlimited Technologies, Inc. “It is my understanding that John transferred the resulting 75,000...

Russian security forces raided gay clubs and bars across Moscow Friday night, less than 48 hours after the country’s top court banned what it called the “global LGBTQ+ movement” as an extremist organization. Police searched venues across the Russian capital, including a nightclub, a male sauna, and a bar that hosted LGBTQ+ parties, under the pretext of a drug raid, local media reported. Eyewitnesses told journalists that clubgoers’ documents were checked and photographed by the security services. They also said that managers had been able to warn patrons before police arrived. The raids follow a decision by Russia’s Supreme Court...

Business leaders, officials and ordinary people tell me that the economy has stabilized, defying the Western sanctions that were once expected to have a devastating effect. Putin’s regime, they say, looks more stable than at any other time in the past two years. Restaurants in Moscow are packed. “The restaurant market is growing, not only in Moscow, but throughout Russia, facilitated by the development of domestic tourism,” said a top Russian restaurateur. “And the quality of food is also changing for the better.” Real estate prices are rising, and construction is booming. At the beginning of 2022, most global brands...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Israel was replying to an attack of unprecedented cruelty by using cruel methods of its own. Putin told reporters that Russia understood the "logic of events" in the Middle East, where Israel has laid siege to the Gaza Strip and pounded it with air strikes in response to a weekend attack by Hamas militants who killed over 1,300 people. "Israel is replying on a large scale and also with quite cruel methods," Putin said during a visit to Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan.

The puppy was named Umka PSKOV, October 8./TASS/. A schoolgirl from the western Russian city of Pskov has received an Akita Inu puppy as a gift from Russian President Vladimir Putin, the press service of the Pskov Region's government has said. "On this day a schoolgirl received a present from Russian President Vladimir Putin. The country's leader fulfilled the girl's longtime dream of having her own pet dog, Vika has long been dreaming about having an Akita Inu puppy," the statement says. When Vika saw the puppy, she burst into tears of joy. The puppy was named Umka. "I'm very...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday the prosecution of former President Donald Trump was politically motivated and demonstrated the "rottenness" of the U.S. political system.Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is facing a series of criminal cases in which he is charged, among other things, with trying to overturn his 2020 presidential election defeat by Joe Biden.He has pleaded not guilty, while Biden, who is seeking re-election next year, has kept silent about the proceedings against his opponent.Putin said what was happening to Trump was good from Russia's point of view."It shows all the rottenness of the...

Joe Biden just solidified Russia’s near-monopoly on global uranium production. Using the Antiquities Act of 1906, Biden declared a national monument on 1 million acres of uranium-rich Arizona land, rendering hundreds of uranium deposits unmineable. America spends $1 billion annually on Russian uranium. U.S. nuclear reactors use uranium that comes from the Russian nuclear company Rosatom, which also supplies missile fuel to Russia’s military. Domestic uranium production has bipartisan support, as did the ban on Russian oil and gas imports in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine. The Senate last week added an almost-unanimous amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act...

Russia said on Saturday it would punish Ukraine for using a sea drone to attack a civilian tanker near the Kerch Strait in what it said was a "terrorist act" that threatened the lives of the crew and risked "a large-scale environmental disaster." Both sides said on Saturday that a Ukrainian sea drone full of explosives had struck a Russian fuel tanker overnight near a bridge linking Russia to annexed Crimea, the second such attack in 24 hours. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Moscow would retaliate.

President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a controversial law that bans legal and surgical sex changes, a move that deprives transgender Russians of the right to access gender-affirming services. The law, which makes "medical interventions aimed at changing the sex of a person" and "the state registration of a change of gender without an operation" illegal, was swiftly passed by both houses of the Russian parliament earlier this month. The law also bans individuals who have undergone gender reassignment from adopting children and annuls marriages in which one of the partners is transgender. It enters into force immediately. LGBT activists...

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed new legislation Monday which marked the final step in outlawing gender-affirming procedures, a crippling blow to Russia’s already embattled LGBTQ+ community. The bill, which was approved unanimously by both houses of parliament, bans any “medical interventions aimed at changing the sex of a person,” as well as changing one’s gender in official documents and public records. The only exception will be medical intervention to treat congenital anomalies. It also annuls marriages in which one person has “changed gender” and bars transgender people from becoming foster or adoptive parents.

Russia’s lower house of parliament on Friday passed a bill banning any “medical interventions aimed at changing the sex of a person” as part of a batch of laws aimed at combating LGBTQ propaganda.The thrice-reviewed bill, which must still be approved by the upper chamber, the Federation Council, and signed by President Vladimir Putin to take effect, only permits gender “reassignment” surgery to treat congenital physical abnormalities in children.The law also bans people who have attempted to surgically change their sex from becoming adoptive parents or guardians and provides for the ability to annul a marriage if either spouse “changes”...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has revealed a new unmanned drone equipped with thermobaric weaponry, which poses a significant threat to targets, leaving their enemies with limited options to defend against it, RadarOnline.com has learned.

In its early phases, Ukraine’s counteroffensive is having less success and Russian forces are showing more competence than western assessments expected, two western officials and a senior US military official tell CNN.The counteroffensive is “not meeting expectations on any front,” one of the officials said.According to the Western assessments, Russian lines of defense have been proving well-fortified, making it difficult for Ukrainian forces to breach them. In addition, Russian forces have had success bogging down Ukrainian armor with missile attacks and mines and have been deploying air power more effectively.Ukrainian forces are proving “vulnerable” to minefields and Russian forces “competent”...